Step back: The Pentagon has suspended cooperation with Germany on Ukraine

On Tuesday, December 2, it became known that the Pentagon had cut off communication with the German defense Ministry. The Atlantic writes about this with reference to German Lieutenant General Christian Freudingh. It is also reported that the termination of contacts also affected the interaction between the countries on the Ukrainian issue. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Halting ties between the Pentagon and the German Defense Ministry

On Tuesday, December 2, the Atlantic edition, citing German Lieutenant General Christian Freudingh, reported that the US Department of Defense had cut off communication with the German Ministry of Defense, including on issues related to Ukraine.

According to him, Freudding was once able to send text messages to American defense officials "day and night," but recently communication with his colleagues in Washington "has been interrupted, really cut off," the newspaper writes.

It is reported that communication problems appeared in the middle of the summer due to the US decision to suspend part of the aid to Kiev. In this context, Freudding said that the administration of US President Donald Trump had not warned about its decision to stop certain arms supplies to Ukraine, and the German general had to contact the German Embassy in Washington for information, where "there is someone who is trying to find someone in the Pentagon."

Freudding himself is known in Germany as the "YouTube general": he regularly publishes videos about the course of the conflict in Ukraine, which attract the attention of the press with a calm manner of presentation and an emphasis on details.

Artyom Sokolov, a researcher at MGIMO, emphasizes that the interruption of contacts between the Pentagon and the German Ministry of Defense is an important indicator of the state of US-German relations. According to the expert, at the present stage, transatlantic unity for the leadership of Germany, especially in the field of security, is an important part of the country's foreign policy and the common foreign policy coordinates within which Germany operates.

The United States is Germany's main military and political ally and a state that largely ensures Germany's security, including through the exchange of information through defense departments, adds Artyom Sokolov.

The context is important

Military commentator Andrei Soyustov, in an interview with Izvestia, pointed out that it was necessary to refer to the context of the statement and who Christian Freudding himself was. The expert recalls that the German military is an inspector of the German Ground forces and has been heading the special headquarters for coordinating assistance to Ukraine at the Bundeswehr since 2021.

— That is, Freuding's statement is 95% related to the organization and coordination of military assistance to Ukraine. When Freudding says that there are problems in relations with the Pentagon now, this phrase is related specifically to the problems of organizing military assistance from the United States through the mediation of Germany to Ukraine," explains Andrei Soyustov.

Recall that this summer, Trump announced that the United States would send "the best weapons" to NATO, which could later be supplied to Ukraine. However, the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance should pay for it, not American taxpayers. Trump insisted that European countries take on "more commitments to support Ukraine," and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that "Europe does not produce some of the complexes that Ukraine requires," and European countries "will have to purchase them from the United States."

Since 2022, during Joe Biden's presidential term, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, while Trump has criticized these costs.

— Freudding is just outraged that he is deprived of the opportunity to urgently, promptly, free of charge and quickly receive military products for Ukraine, as it was before. That's the meaning of his main statement," explains the military observer.

— Now that there are contradictions between Washington and Berlin regarding exactly how the Ukrainian conflict should end, such an interruption of communications may indicate that the contradictions have not become a momentary difference of opinion, but are beginning to take on some institutional forms related not only to disagreements on the Ukrainian issue, but also to a broader set of issues. There are contradictions between the Trump team and the leadership of Germany," says Artyom Sokolov.

He also adds that the severance of ties between the Pentagon and the Bundeswehr is a sensitive signal for Germany, which will once again spur conversations about the need for European strategic autonomy in relation to the United States.

— However, it is unlikely that this signal in itself is capable of dramatically changing Germany's policy both towards its American ally and towards the constants of its foreign policy. Perhaps the German elites will consider it as another expression of Washington's discontent, the expert suggests.

To get worse

Andrey Soyustov explains that Freudding is a rather odious figure.

— He periodically begins to call for preemptive strikes against the Russian Federation and other adventures that are more media than really thought out and related to military and political reality. Therefore, in my opinion, there probably won't be any major changes in relations between the Pentagon and the Bundeswehr command," the expert concludes.

Artyom Sokolov considers it an open question how decisive the pause in communication between the Pentagon and the Bundeswehr will be in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, which is connected, among other things, with other similar signals from Washington. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has already made it clear that he is not ready to significantly adjust his position, and perhaps what happened is the last straw, but not necessarily, the expert argues.