Vladimir Putin will cause Europe to suffer ‘things we cannot even imagine right now’, a German army chief has warned.

Major General Wolf-Jürgen Stahl, president of the Federal Academy for Security Policy, claimed Germany is already facing cyber attacks by Russia but fears Putin could ramp up his assaults across Europe and even deploy troops on the ground. 

He also lashed out at Donald Trump for being an ‘egomaniac, narcissistic, erratic dealmaker with authoritarian leanings’.

Speaking at the German-British Society, he said: ‘When I see how Putin has acted up to now, and the way that he is in my assessment on a mission against the West, then there is no question of whether he will use military means. If he gets the opportunity, he will use them.’

He expressed concern at how European leaders would react if Russia were to invade Nato territory and said the country’s liberal democratic order is under threat.

He said: ‘People will immediately say “Er, we don’t need to fight at all. We have to resolve it diplomatically. We can’t resolve it militarily”. 

‘I don’t know what discussions, what currents might be unleashed here in Germany. I do have a certain concern about that.’

He added: ‘If Nato territory is occupied by Russian soldiers, then Nato has to say: “How do we chuck them out so that the territory is restored to Nato, not just de jure but de facto?”’

‘The world is coming apart at the seams. It’s turbulent. It’s rough. It’s lawless, it’s in a state of disorder… we urgently need to work on shoring up our foundations.’ 

The defence chief hit out at Trump but said he was still confident the US would provide its ‘nuclear umbrella’ to Europe, even if some of its ground forces were removed from the continent.

He said: ‘My biggest intellectual challenge is the president.

‘I saw at the [Munich] security conference that I’m not the only one who has difficulties here; the Americans do too. They have an erratic president.

‘And so it’s hard for me whenever they all say, “No, we’re staying in Europe, a stable Europe is a vital interest for us and we need it for our own security”, and then they experience a president like this.’

Stahl claimed the key four pillars of German security: the EU, Nato, national economic strength and social cohesion, are under significant pressure.

Russian aggression is forcing European nations to consider nuclear weapons to guard against attacks. 

And Poland, who shot down Russian suicide drones in September after they entered its airspace, is considering nuclear weapons.

Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki said the country should start developing nuclear weapons of its own.

He said he was a ‘great supporter of Poland joining the nuclear project’, which he wants to underpin the country’s security strategy.

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