At a moment it is increasingly clear that there’s no off-ramp for the Ukraine proxy war on the horizon in the foreseeable future, European governments have been ramping up their defense readiness amid fears of a future direct clash with Russia. 

While the United Kingdom’s military leadership has been vocal of late about raising up a ‘citizen army’ – other countries have been mulling the activation of more of their armed forces – even Germany, which has historically (pre-Ukraine war) maintained very low defense spending and neutrality. 

But days ago the chair of the German parliament’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, issued a public plea for the government to activate 900,000 German reservists, citing the need to do so based on the ‘Russian threat’ to Europe, according to DPA news agency.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, image via Germany’s dpa

“Putin is training his people for war and positioning them against the West. We must, therefore, become capable of defense as quickly as possible,” Strack-Zimmermann stated.

She called on leaders in the Germany’s military, to “activate the roughly 900,000 reservists we have.” The lawmaker, who is a member of the co-ruling Free Democratic Party (FDP), followed with: “If we could recruit just half of them as reservists with their relevant expertise, that would be an incredible asset.”

This comes after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius finally confirmed in February that the country will meet the 2% GDP defense spending target in 2024, which is something that former President Trump had previously berated the US ally over. It’s a historic first since the end of the Cold War.

Interestingly, personnel who are deemed ‘reserves’ are not limited to those who signed up for the military on a professional or volunteer bases. But reservists include any and all former service members, as well as former conscripts, who had served for an extended period of time.

Thus even long after they are discharged or retired, they can still be ‘activated’ – presumably if still of the age or fitness required for duty.

Despite the media current climate of alarmist headlines predicting that Putin will expand the war to include other parts of Europe, the Kremlin has consistently batted down accusations that it’s interested in expanding the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, at a moment Ukraine forces are being rapidly beaten back in Kharkiv oblast, The Telegraph is featuring a series “imagining the consequences” of Russia being “successful” in its war…

A more important, better question should be asked: what will the consequences be if Ukraine’s Western backers refuse to contemplate negotiating a ceasefire?