Ex-German Navy Chief Warns of EU "Sleepwalking" into Russia Confrontation

Germany and the EU risk “sleepwalking” into a direct confrontation with Russia by becoming parties to the Ukraine conflict after abandoning diplomatic engagement with Moscow, the former head of the German Navy has warned in an interview with Berliner Zeitung.

Former German Navy chief Kay-Achim Schonbach resigned in early 2022 after triggering a political uproar by arguing that Russia was acting to protect its security interests rather than seeking confrontation with the West.

Looking back, Schonbach said he would not change the substance of his comments, arguing that Europe missed a chance to prevent the escalation of the Ukraine conflict by failing to “respect the Russian Federation’s right to its own vision of a security architecture on its western border.”

Schonbach emphasized that peace and stability in Europe can only be possible “with, and not against, Russia.”

He also raised concerns that given their current trajectory, Germany and the EU could go beyond legitimate support for Ukraine and “sleepwalk into the role of a belligerent.”

“Only in Ukraine is diplomacy categorically rejected,” he noted, arguing that Germany had squandered decades of postwar reconciliation with Moscow through “moralizing and righteous anger.”

Schonbach also said contacts between the German and Russian navies are now “completely severed,” something he said did not happen even at the height of the Cold War.

His warning comes as European NATO members have continued to expand military spending and harden their rhetoric toward Moscow. Czech President Petr Pavel recently urged NATO to “show its teeth” to Russia, while senior Western commanders have called for Europe to prepare for a possible 2030 war with Moscow.

In Germany, opposition figures from both the right-wing AfD and Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW have also consistently criticized Berlin’s Ukraine policy, calling for renewed dialogue with Russia, an end to weapons deliveries to Kiev, and a rethink of sanctions that they say have decimated Germany’s own economy.

Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it plans to attack NATO or the EU, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling them “nonsense” and “provocation” used to justify militarization.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also stressed that Russia has no intention of attacking Europe unless attacked first, and has accused German and EU leadership of transforming the bloc into “a Fourth Reich.”