BERLIN

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO country “within 5-8 years.”

"We hear threats from the Kremlin almost every day ... so we have to take into account that Vladimir Putin might even attack a NATO country one day," Pistorius said in an interview with the Berlin-based Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

While a Russian attack is not likely "for now," the minister added: "Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible."

The remarks from Pistorius coincide with warnings by Sweden's Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who said that “war could come to Sweden.”

Pistorius told Der Tagesspiegel that the Swedish warnings were "understandable from a Scandinavian perspective," adding that Sweden faced "an even more serious situation," given its proximity to Russia.

Sweden is also not yet a member of the NATO alliance, pending approval from Türkiye and Hungary.

"But we also have to learn to live with danger again and prepare ourselves — militarily, socially and in terms of civil defense," Pistorius stressed.

On Tuesday, Germany’s top-selling daily BILD reported that the German government is preparing a secret plan for potential Russian aggression against NATO, further saying that the Defense Ministry is bracing for a possible all-out European war in the near future.

According to Bild, which has seen the plans, the “exercise scenario” sketched out by the German government foresees an incoming build-up of Russian troops in Belarus and the exclave of Kaliningrad, Russia’s most westerly territory, putting pressure on Poland’s border.



In response to this growing threat, the plan forecasts that NATO will deploy its troops to eastern Europe, heightening tensions in the region.