BERLIN, January 19. /TASS/. German military experts believe the reported threat of a Russian attack on Western countries is highly unlikely to materialize now, and for at least another five to eight years, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Asked about the likelihood of an attack by Russia, the minister said he currently views this scenario as "unlikely."

"Our experts assume that it will take five to eight years before this becomes possible," Pistorius said.

He added that Germany is again facing a situation when there is "a military threat in Europe, something that has not been seen in 30 years." So the German military is "analyzing both plausible and high-risk scenarios" for how the situation could develop in the region, he said.

Earlier, the Bild newspaper reported, citing a secret document of the German Armed Forces that the country’s military is considering a scenario according to which Russia could allegedly provoke a contrived conflict in the area of the Suwalki Corridor in order to invade NATO territory. In this case, according to the publication, NATO will send 300,000 troops to the eastern flank by the summer of 2025. In response to Bild's inquiry, the German Defense Ministry said that consideration of "various scenarios, even extremely unlikely ones, is part of everyday military matters."

The Suwalki Corridor is a strategically important section of the Lithuanian-Polish border. A blockade of the corridor would isolate Lithuania from its Western NATO allies. The corridor is about 64 kilometers long and is adjacent to Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and the Belarusian region of Grodno.