REUTERS/Heiko BeckerBERLIN, July 17 (Reuters) - Germany is confident it will have the best equipped army division amongst European NATO allies in 2025, Army Chief Alfons Mais told Reuters, as countries are scrambling to gear up their troops in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the moment, Berlin does not have a single combat-ready division, a military unit comprising more than 20,000 troops. It aims to have the first of three divisions operational by 2025, with the second to follow in 2027. "It will be sufficient, in any case, to contribute the best equipped division of all European NATO partners in 2025. "But supporting Ukraine is more important right now than establishing a division, as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed," he underlined.

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Persons: Boris Pistorius, Heiko Becker BERLIN, Alfons Mais, Mais, Jens Stoltenberg, Olaf Scholz, Sabine Siebold, Emma, Victoria Farr, David Evans Organizations: German, Bundeswehr, REUTERS, NATO, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Hammelburg, Germany, Ukraine, Berlin, Dutch, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyiv