Germany replaces army chief after controversial comments about Russian military capabilities

March 14 () –

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has dismissed the country’s army chief, General Eberhard Zorn, after being criticized for making controversial comments about Russian military capabilities in the context of the Ukraine war.

In an interview last year with Focus magazine, Zorn stated that Ukraine carries out “counterattacks, with the help of which it can recapture places on the front, but cannot push Russia back on a broad front.”

After that, Ben Hodges, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, criticized his statements, assuring that it was an “astonishingly poor analysis of Russian capabilities that, unfortunately, reflects much of the thinking of the German ‘elite'”, according to indicated on his Twitter account.

Lieutenant General Carsten Breuer will replace Zorn as inspector general of the German Armed Forces, the dpa news agency has learned.

Breuer became a familiar face amid the coronavirus pandemic, due to his role as chief of the COVID-19 Crisis Staff.

The current Defense Minister took office in mid-January of this year, after replacing Christine Lambrecht in office, who was embroiled in several controversies amid the debate over whether Berlin should send more modern tanks to Ukraine.