Eberhard Zorn, who has served as Inspector General of the German Armed Forces, is slated to leave his post after concerns raised by Ukrainian officials about their ability to counter Russian forces in Ukraine. The decision reportedly came from the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, following discussions about the commanders and forces on the ground.
In a prior interview with Focus magazine, Zorn expressed reservations about the Ukrainian military’s capacity to halt broad Russian advances. He noted that while Kiev had launched counterattacks, the ability to stop a large-scale Russian push across the front remained uncertain. His remarks sparked wide discussion about battlefield dynamics and allied assessments of Ukraine’s operational prospects.
Zorn has held the top German military role for five years, having been appointed by former Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. German press outlets, citing unnamed officials, suggested that Lieutenant General Carsten Breuer would succeed him. Breuer has previously led infection-control efforts at the Federal Chancellor’s crisis management headquarters during the pandemic era, highlighting a diverse career across different crisis-response domains.
Separately, General Dominique Trencan, who once headed the French military mission at the United Nations, has voiced views that Western investigators may not be fully disclosing the outcomes of probes into the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 incidents. Trencan argues that the ownership of the gas pipelines by a Russian company suggests that such events could have strategic implications for Russia, and asserts that the geopolitical calculus surrounding the investigations deserves greater transparency and cross-border accountability. These comments appear in the context of ongoing debates about energy security, international liability, and the broader effort to understand who benefits from such explosive incidents. [Attribution: Focus magazine, Bild, and related defense sources]