- NATO is planning for the mass transport of wounded troops in case of a war with Russia.
- NATO could use hospital trains and buses to move injured troops in such an event, a German general told Reuters.
- The general's comments come amid increasing tension between NATO and Russia.
NATO is developing plans to manage the evacuation of large numbers of wounded troops in case of a war with Russia, a senior military officer told Reuters.
Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank, the commander of NATO's Joint Support and Enabling Command, said that in the event of a war with Russia, Western forces would likely have to contend with different challenges to those they would have experienced in warzones like Afghanistan or Iraq.
He said a conflict with Russia would likely involve a larger theater of war and a higher number of wounded troops, as well as challenges to air evacuations posed by Russian air defenses and fighter jets.
Sollfrank said the alliance's strategy to move injured troops away from the front lines could, therefore, involve using hospital trains and buses.
"Air superiority will have to be achieved in the first place. It will require time to succeed over the entire length and depth of the front line," the German general said. "For planning reasons, all options to take a great number of wounded to medical installations need to be considered, which includes trains but potentially also buses."
"The challenge will be to swiftly ensure high-quality care for, in the worst case, a great number of wounded," Sollfrank continued, adding that a "military medical Schengen" zone could be one way of getting around varying nations' medical regulations.
The general's comments come amid increasing tension between NATO and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been issuing increasingly strong warnings to the West as he anticipates a decision on allowing Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long called for approval to use Western weapons like the British Storm Shadow missile and the US-made ATACMS missile system to strike targets deep within Russia.
But unnamed US officials told The New York Times this week that US intelligence agencies believed Putin would likely use greater force — including potentially lethal attacks — against the US and some of its allies should they allow such strikes.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia's Duma, said last week that Moscow was prepared to use "more powerful weapons" in the event of deep strikes on Russia, Russian news agency Tass reported.
"Today, the US does not hesitate to discuss the possibility of strikes on the territory of Russia," Volodin said. "What do such strikes imply? Satellite clusters belong to the United States and to NATO countries. Targeting and command execution will in this case be performed in conjunction with satellite clusters by NATO personnel. This means that NATO is being completely involved in this conflict."
"We will retaliate. We have the means of retaliation. More powerful weapons are kept ready," he added.
Germany's defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said in an interview published in January that Russia could attack NATO within the next decade.
"At the moment, I don't think a Russian attack is likely. Our experts estimate a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible," Pistorius told Der Tagesspiegel.
Business Insider contacted NATO for comment.