NATO begins large-scale military exercises involving 25 countries

The biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War is starting in Germany. Air Defender training will be held in Germany from June 12 to 23 with the participation of 10,000 military and 250 aircraft from 25 countries, RIA Novosti reports.

The media also cites the words of the German Air Force Commander Ingo Gerhartz, who said that the exercises were not planned to fly near the Kaliningrad region, and the maneuvers themselves are not a provocation against Russia.

At the same time, the Russian Federation called the NATO exercises a signal to Russia in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. “After the end of the Cold War, this is probably the largest Air Force exercise with the deployment of various airfields in the country and the closure of part of the airspace,” said Alexander Kamkin, senior researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, adding that the maneuvers are Russia’s signal, and this is especially evident in the context of the situation in Ukraine.”

His colleague, Head of the Department of European Security at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Danilov, stressed that “we are talking about working out possible operations as part of planning, taking into account the current Ukrainian crisis and the development of the military-political situation in the region.” “The containment of Russia by NATO is a priority goal of the military and political planning of the alliance, and, accordingly, it is necessary to work out appropriate scenarios in the face of the uncertain development of the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict,” the expert added.

He noted that one should also “keep in mind the entry of the Nordic countries into NATO: now Finland, in the future – Sweden – it is important for the alliance to work out the coordination, complementarity and interaction of the armed forces.”