The second stage of the NATO Defender 25 exercises starts in southeastern Europe - what exactly will they practice on it?
On May 26, the second stage of the Defender 25 - Immediate Response NATO exercise (Defender 25 — Immediate Response) will start in eight countries of Southeastern Europe. It is known that they will work out the joint conduct of military operations by the alliance's military personnel under various threats, including cyber ones. It has been announced that it is planned to involve 12,000 military personnel from 19 countries in the exercises. Izvestia figured out what else the North Atlantic Alliance wants to work out at such a small distance from the Russian borders and how the next NATO maneuvers are viewed in Moscow.
What NATO will work on in Southeastern Europe
According to General Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. forces in Europe and Africa, the Defender 25 exercises demonstrate "global deterrence," practicing logistics and combat interaction on a scale "unparalleled."
The main actions will take place from May 26 to June 9 simultaneously in eight countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovakia. There, 12,000 alliance troops will practice joint firing, river crossings, integration with national partners and a separate issue - cyber defense.
The bloc is clearly preparing for the war of the future, military expert Alexei Leonkov suggests. Currently, NATO is changing the scenarios for practicing combat operations, taking into account the experience gained in the Ukrainian conflict zone.
"It has long been known that Ukraine has become a military training ground for them," he told Izvestia. — Recently, I have often seen reports in the Western media, especially those devoted to military analytics, that Russian electronic warfare systems have come as a surprise to the North Atlantic Alliance. Their impact affects not only high-precision weapon systems, but also combat control systems.
Such systems are going to be widely distributed by NATO countries in the near future, so they need to be protected, the expert explained. And eliminating this cyber threat is a priority for them now.
— They make them on a single platform with the participation of artificial intelligence, — Alexey Leonkov emphasized. — It is important for the Alliance to check how the troops will interact during the exercises, in the face of strong opposition from our electronic warfare systems. The exercises will be held both at the training grounds of southeastern Europe and at the headquarters of other NATO countries.
— Maneuvers in the south-east of Europe do not take place often. Right now, everyone is sitting quietly there — they can't be heard or seen — even those countries that are in the bloc. For this reason, they decided to mobilize them against Russia," former UN Deputy Secretary General Sergei Ordzhonikidze told Izvestia. — Serbia is also nearby, so we can create tension there in the future.
According to him, Turkey is not participating in this stage due to historically strained relations with Greece due to territorial claims.
"The situation worsened especially after the Turkish troops occupied northern Cyprus," he recalled. "The fact that they're in the same alliance doesn't mean anything. Turkey and Greece have been on the brink of war several times, even as members of NATO. National interests will always be higher than the interests of the bloc. And if the maneuvers had been in Turkey, the Greeks probably wouldn't have come either.
The rhetoric doesn't change
Defender Europe 2025 is significantly smaller in scale than the exercises held in 2024 (Steadfast Defender 2024), in which 90,000 NATO troops took part. This is due to the fact that the North Atlantic Alliance does not have a large contingent that can be constantly driven across Europe and the border with Russia, military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.
— These maneuvers are just working off the money that NATO has allocated for the exercises. There will be nothing outstanding on them to make Russia worth its efforts," he is sure. — Although we will certainly keep an eye on them. It is especially interesting what changes will take place in the tactics of the NATO troops, given their experience in the special military operation zone.
The rhetoric of the alliance, according to the expert, does not change. NATO's motto towards Russia is "deterrence and dialogue".
— Deterrence — they are trying to prevent our development and strengthening. Dialogue — they teach Russia how to live. The North Atlantic Alliance wants Russia to obey their instructions, but why would we do that? For us, NATO is an aggressive military bloc. Their actions in Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, and Iraq prove this. There were no defensive actions on the part of the alliance, only aggressive ones," he stressed.
Currently, Russia has no relations with NATO. Although they are trying to talk about the need to revive the Council of Russia and NATO, words are still words. In fact, the alliance is not even trying to return our officers to the headquarters of the bloc, whom they have reduced, Viktor Litovkin summed up.
Previously, Izvestia ru/1882971/iuliia-leonova/orientatciia-sever-riadom-s-kareliei-nachalis-voennye-ucheniia-nato" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">wrote that large-scale military exercises involving Sweden and the United Kingdom began in Finland on May 12. They are held at the Rovajarvi training ground in Lapland until May 31. It is used to train Finnish army gunners, is considered the largest in Western Europe and is located next to Karelia.
In total, about 6.5 thousand people are involved in the maneuvers, of which 350 are from the UK and 900 from Sweden. This was reported on the website of the Finnish Land Forces. During the exercises, NATO soldiers practice firing from closed firing positions, the actions of attack helicopters and the use of drones in the northern regions.
Julia Leonova
Andrey Fedorov
