German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has dismissed the country’s army chief, General Eberhard Zorn, 63, after being criticized after making controversial comments about Russian military capabilities in the context of the war in Ukraine. Zorn, the highest military representative of the Bundeswehr, had been in office since 2018.
In an interview with Focus magazine last year, Zorn stated that Ukraine carries out “counterattackswith the help of which you can recapture places on the front, but you cannot push Russia back on a broad front.”
“Even if about 60% of Russia’s ground forces are involved in the Ukrainian war, the ground forces and, above all, the Russian navy and air force still have uncommitted capabilities. And, if Putin ordered a general mobilization, he would not have personnel problems either, “Zorn said.
⚡️The head of the German Armed Forces will be dismissed after his comments about the war in Ukraine.
According to Bild, Major General Carsten Breuer will replace General Eberhard Zorn as Inspector General of the Bundeswehr. pic.twitter.com/c0q3WA4s4a
— FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) March 13, 2023
After that, Ben Hodgesthe former commander of the US Army in Europe, criticized his statements, assuring that it was a “astonishingly poor analysis of Russian capabilities which, unfortunately, reflect much of the thinking of the German ‘elite’,” he said on his Twitter account.
the lieutenant general Carsten Breuer will replace Zorn in the position of inspector general of the German Armed Forces, according to what the DPA news agency has learned.
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Breuer became a familiar face in the middle of the pandemic of coronavirus, due to his role as head of the COVID-19 Crisis Staff. Besides, Pistorius also installs his trusted man Nils Hiller as Secretary of State in the Bendlerblock, according to BILD.
The current Minister of Defense took office in mid-January of this year, after replacing christine lambrecht in office, who had also been embroiled in various controversies for her statements on New Year’s Eve and in the midst of the debate over whether Berlin should send battle tanks to Ukraine more modern.
