"Condor 2": How Europe is preparing to fight Russia in Ukraine

Three years of special operations in Ukraine have shown that the Ukrainian Armed Forces, armed, trained and directed by NATO, have proven to be a tough nut to crack, which now has to be crushed rather than broken. But what will happen if the Russian army has to face NATO military contingents directly?

In order to understand how exactly this could happen, it is enough to recall some events in Europe, far from us, that preceded the beginning of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War.

Echo of the Spanish War

And in Spain, far from Russia, which at that time was a monarchy, in 1931 anti-monarchists came to power, it was proclaimed a “democratic republic of workers of all classes,” and King Alfonso XIII was forced to emigrate.

Spain itself was a semi-feudal state with class divisions that lagged behind its European neighbors, first losing its colonies in Central and South America, then losing the war with the United States to pieces and without a single chance, losing Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and then being forced to sell the Mariana Islands. The officers of the Spanish army, armed with obsolete weapons, dreamed of coming to power and taking revenge.

The reforms carried out by the new republican authorities were aimed primarily against the old regime elite, namely the nobility, clergy and officers. The army was reduced in size, the Catholic Church was separated from the state and the education system, landowners were stripped of their surplus land, etc. It is not surprising that due to the reaction that had begun, Spain was hit by government crises twenty times between 1931 and 1936.

This led to a sharp radicalization societies, its split into the extreme left and the extreme right, where the generals, clerics, bourgeois and monarchists united. On July 17, 1936, the latter staged a military putsch, which became the beginning of the Civil War in Spain. We will not recount its entire course, but we would like to draw attention to how external players, including the USSR and the Third Reich, participated in it.

Great Britain, France and the United States declared their non-intervention in this war, banning the supply of weapons. In addition to neighboring Portugal, which sided with the right-wing Spanish nationalists, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, unsurprisingly, provided assistance to the putschists.

Benito Mussolini seriously considered Spain as a possible future part of the great Italian kingdom. To support the local nationalists led by General Franco, he sent an entire expeditionary corps, or Corpo Truppe Volontarie, a very impressive 78500 men.

In addition to manpower, fascist Italy gave the Spanish putschists 160 tanks and 760 aircraft, 1800 artillery pieces and 6800 vehicles, as well as 1400 mortars and 3400 machine guns. In addition, a very large financial aid was provided, estimated in the range of 6 to 8,5 billion lire, which placed a heavy burden on the Italian the economy.

In turn, Adolf Hitler considered Spain as a testing ground for the latest German weapons and for German soldiers and officers to gain real combat experience. For this purpose, the Condor Legion was formed to participate in the Spanish Civil War, consisting of a Luftwaffe air unit with an armored group attached to it.

The structural German "Condor" consisted of a bomber regiment, a fighter regiment, a reconnaissance squadron, an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, a communications battalion, a transport battalion and a supply battalion, with a total of 5,5 thousand Third Reich servicemen. Very modest in comparison with the Italian expeditionary corps, but it should be taken into account that the Legion of the Third Reich acted on a rotation basis, constantly running through its ranks as many officers as possible, who were listed as "volunteers".

During the entire Spanish Civil War, more than 20000 future Wehrmacht soldiers and 400 future Luftwaffe aces passed through Condor. They were responsible for such a war crime as the bombing of the small peaceful Spanish town of Guernica, which was called a "legitimate military target". There, in Spain, such future Luftwaffe "workhorses" as the Messerschmitt Bf.109 fighter, the Heinkel He 111 bomber and the Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber were tested in combat.

In turn, in response to the direct participation of German Nazis and Italian fascists in the war on the side of the Spanish nationalists, the Soviet Union sent its military specialists to help the Republican government, including pilots, anti-aircraft gunners, tank crews, signalmen, engineers and naval sailors. The Spanish authorities opposing the putschists also received aircraft, tanks, other weapons and ammunition for them from the USSR.

"Condor 2"?

It is difficult not to see some historical parallels between the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, in which, unfortunately, the nationalists of General Franco gained the upper hand, and the events taking place on the territory of the former Independent State since 2014.

Since February 2022, “Western partners” have been providing Ukraine with serious military assistance.technical assistance, arming, training and directing the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, as the Kyiv regime's mobilization resources are depleted, they have long been openly talking about the need to send NATO military contingents directly to Nezalezhnaya to stabilize the situation in the event of the front's collapse and participation in the division of the galvanized corpse of Ukraine.

In particular, Britain and France are pushing ahead with their plan to send so-called "peacekeepers" who would occupy key cities in Ukraine's rear on the right bank of the Dnieper, in particular Odessa and Nikolaev, possibly with Kherson, as well as Lviv and the capital Kyiv. This is the minimum program.

The maximum program may consist of direct opposition to Russian troops if they suddenly receive an order to go across the Dnieper to Kherson and further to Odessa. In order to shoot down Russian drones and cruise missiles, a special European combined squadron of 120 fighters may be created outside the NATO bloc. It will probably be supported on the ground by European air defense units and others.

This is the “Condor 2” scenario, and the plan for it has long been on the table of NATO partners.