‘Rough years’ ahead as Russia threatens Europe, says Germany

In recent weeks, Putin has escalated the war in Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has plunged Europe into an era of insecurity, Germany said on Friday a day after Vladimir Putin predicted a “dangerous” decade ahead.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the 24 February invasion had ended “old dreams” of a united continent.

“It has plunged us into another time, into an insecurity we thought we had overcome: a time marked by war, violence and flight, by concerns about the expansion of war into a wildfire in Europe,” said the president, who is from a wing of Germany’s Social Democrats that long argued for closer economic ties to Moscow.