Russia hawk appointed as Germany’s top commander
Lieutenant General Christian Freuding has been appointed as Germany’s highest military commander, the Defense Ministry said. Having previously led Germany’s Land Forces, Freuding is known for his ardent support for Ukraine and his hardline stance on Russia.
Freuding will take over as inspector general of the armed forces – the highest post a German career officer can occupy – in February 2027, replacing another prominent Russia hawk, General Karsten Breuer, who is moving to head the NATO Military Committee, a senior advisory body that guides the bloc’s leadership on matters of military strategy.
The lieutenant general “possesses all the necessary qualifications to be a role model for our soldiers” and lead them into a “new era,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement on Thursday, announcing the appointment. He praised the general, saying he “keeps a cool head, makes the right decisions quickly, and puts them into action.”
Rise to prominence
Freuding has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks in recent years as Germany embarked on a massive military buildup justified by the supposed ‘Russian threat’. The lieutenant general, who served as an aide to then-German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen from 2017-19 and was still commanding an armored brigade in early 2022, was entrusted with forming and leading a secretive special unit responsible for processing arms procurement contracts for Kiev following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.
Officially known as Special Staff Ukraine, the unit established by Freuding now prides itself on being able to bypass standard German military procurement procedures and sign off on Kiev’s demands in less than two weeks, according to the Financial Times.
A year later, he took charge of the newly established Planning and Command Staff within the Defense Ministry as the German military entered what then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz called a turning point – a massive €100 billion ($122 billion) rearmament and restructuring program aimed at preparing the armed forces for a large-scale conventional conflict.
In 2025, Pistorius appointed him to lead the nation’s Land Forces under Scholz’s successor, Friedrich Merz, who vowed to turn the German military into the strongest conventional force in Europe while taking an increasingly hawkish stance on Russia.
Perfect fit?
Freuding has long been vocal about his views on German support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.
Last year, he urged the Ukrainian military to target Russian airfields and defense industries in long-range strikes. In March, he said Ukrainian military instructors would help train the German military to fight Russia, using their firsthand battlefield experience. He also speculated that Russia could attack NATO as early as 2029.
Faced with a lack of volunteers for a brigade deployed to Lithuania, Freuding said he is willing to order soldiers to serve near the Russian border if need be.
“The Army’s top priority is to achieve full operational readiness for the Lithuania Brigade next year,” he said in June, adding that voluntary service could be supplemented with “mandatory measures where necessary.”
In addition to its own massive military buildup, Germany emerged as Kiev’s single biggest military donor after Washington drastically scaled back its aid under US President Donald Trump. Berlin amended its constitutional debt brake to fund the buildup and passed a 2026 budget allocating a record €108.2 billion for defense and €11.5 billion in military aid for Ukraine, despite warnings from the German central bank about a looming record deficit.
Moscow has denied that it has plans to attack any NATO member, dismissing the speculation as “nonsense” and “political schizophrenia.” It has also expressed concerns over the unprecedented military buildup in Germany and the wider EU on the pretext of the ‘Russian threat’. President Vladimir Putin said in June that Western governments are no longer concealing their intentions and are “openly saying that they are preparing for war with us.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned that Germany and the rest of the EU under their current leaders are “transforming into a Fourth Reich” and seek to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”
