On January 14, a Russian missile struck a residential building in the city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 45 civilians with many more missing. Russia was blamed for the bombing—but there’s a chance the atrocity could not have happened without German help.

The missile is believed to have been launched from a combat aircraft that took off from a Russian base supplied with jet fuel from one of Wintershall Dea’s joint ventures with Russia.

Wintershall Dea is Germany’s largest mineral oil company. In November, Spiegel Online wrote: “A joint venture of the German Wintershall Dea supplies gas condensate to Gazprom. The state-owned company supplies aviation fuel to the very bases whose pilots are being held responsible for alleged war crimes.”

Despite the exposé, Wintershall continued doing business with Russia. Now many people believe it is partly responsible for the death of Ukrainian civilians.

“We are convinced that there is Ukrainian blood on Wintershall’s hands,” said Switlana Romanko of the Ukrainian nongovernmental organization Razom We Stand.

After intense pressure following the missile strike, Wintershall Dea finally announced on January 17 that it planned to end its controversial business in Russia. Nonetheless it claims that the recent accusations are “constructed and dishonest.” There is no indication that Wintershall would have even considered ending its deadly business without media pressure.

Spiegel Online wrote on January 24:

Since the reporting by Spiegel and zdf, the pressure on Wintershall Dea has been increasing. Robin Wagener, a member of the Green Party in the German Bundestag, considers every additional day that Wintershall Dea extracts gas condensate from the ground in Russia to be dangerous: “The company must do everything it can to withdraw from Russia as quickly as possible. Every day that it operates there longer is also a day that the company risks being involved in producing kerosene for bombers that kill people in Ukraine.

Since 2008, Wintershall has been involved in a joint venture with Gazprom. Even after the invasion of Ukraine, Wintershall continued to work closely with the Russian state-owned Gazprom. The German company claims that it has no control over what happens to the raw material after it is sold to Gazprom. But that is what makes this cooperation concerning—not just the financial benefit Russia is getting but also the critical contribution Wintershall has made to the war.

This is not the first time Wintershall has been criticized for its dealings with Russia. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany and Russia were working on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline through the Baltic Sea that would have ensured Germany’s gas supply from Russia would be independent from other continental pipelines. Among the pipeline’s primary financiers are Gazprom and Wintershall Dea.

Many feared the controversial cooperation filled Russia’s pockets and threatened the existence of Ukraine. The assumption proved true. The whole of Germany’s government knew about this cooperation but remained silent.

Considering the company’s history, you would expect nothing less. Wintershall Dea is a subsidiary of basf, the world’s largest chemical company. During Adolf Hitler’s reign, basf was part of the conglomerate IG Farben, manufacturer of, among other things, the Nazis’ death gas, Zyklon B. Handelsblatt called IG Farben “The Company That Enabled Hitler’s World War.”

Could it be that the same company has enabled another war?

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, everyone agreed it would need to be stopped via economic sanctions. But a recent study conducted by Swiss management school imd Institute and University of St. Gallen found that these sanctions are not completely enforced. European Union and G-7 firms have retreated from Russia in a very limited way since the start of the war. Russia’s war continues to be financed and enabled through those firms.

According to the research, 19.5 percent of the EU and G-7 companies still doing business in Russia are German-owned; nearly every fifth company of dozens of countries that were meant to withdraw from Russia is German. Thus Germany, more than any other EU or G-7 country, has continued to finance Russia’s war.

Germany and Russia have a long history of cooperation, and the Bible reveals that Germany’s current business cooperation with Russia will lead to even greater evil. In “Rising From the German Underground,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry revealed the role German industrialists play in the rise of the Fourth Reich, a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire prophesied in Revelations 17. He wrote:

Here is how this prophecy describes this coming European power: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings [10 European leaders], which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (verses 12-13). We can expect 10 strong leaders to arise in Europe—surely some of them are already in power—and come together to strengthen a European superpower led by Germany.

The next chapter reveals that businessmen and industrialists, referred to in prophecy as “the merchants of the earth,” will throw their weight behind this political-religious power. And once again, their investment will appear to pay off in a spectacular way. Revelation 18:3 foretells that these merchants “are waxed rich” thanks to this new Babylonish empire. Verses 12-13 chillingly list many commodities that will be sold throughout this kingdom. Just as in World War ii, much of this business empire will be built on the back of “slaves, and souls of men.”

These businesses have allowed Germany to rise to great power. But the economic strength has been facilitated by slaves and blood. This is certainly true if you look at Germany’s history. But it is also true if you examine its present cooperation with Russia and China. And yet all that is just the beginning of far worse to come.

The Bible, however, not only reveals the rise of this “Babylonish empire” but also speaks of its fall (Revelation 18). This is the good news for those who suffered at Germany’s hands and for the German people themselves. God will free the German people from the deceit they have been under and lead them into a peaceful way of life based on God’s law of love. Germany, the modern descendants of ancient Assyria, will learn to live and trade for the betterment of mankind (Isaiah 19:23-25).

But before that, God will use Germany to punish His people (Isaiah 10:5). These truths are explained in Mr. Flurry’s free booklet Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany.