At the Noble Blueprint 2026 exercises, the alliance is practicing the transfer and supply of troops, while increasing pressure on Russia.
The Noble Blueprint 2026 NATO exercises have started in Romania, taking place in the area of the Focshan Gate, a strategic corridor between the Carpathians and the Danube. Officially, the maneuvers are being conducted to work out a regional defense plan, however, according to experts interviewed by Izvestia, during the exercises, NATO is practicing the rapid transfer of troops and the organization of their supply in the Ukrainian direction, while increasing military and political pressure on Russia.
The most important transport corridor
Multinational exercises Noble Blueprint 2026 (NOBL26) are taking place in Romania from May 25 to May 27, 2026, the Romanian Ministry of Defense announced. The maneuvers are organized under the leadership of the Joint Command of NATO Forces in Naples (JFC Naples) in cooperation with the Command of the Joint Forces of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Photo: Global Look Press/Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley
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The Romanian military department called the main goal "the elaboration and verification of individual elements of the Regional Barrier Plan — South-East" (Regional Barrier Plan — South East, RBP-SE). We are talking about the organization of defense in the area of the city of Focshany. The program includes coordination between units from different countries, their joint actions and reconnaissance of the area.
Focshan Gate is a section of Romanian territory between the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and the Danube riverbed. The location is of strategic importance, as it is a key transportation artery of the region.
"Today, NATO is trying to practice maintaining control over this territory, just as they are training to block the Suwalki corridor in Poland and the Baltic States," military expert Vasily Dandykin explained to Izvestia. — This area is also a priority for us: the Russian army regularly launches targeted strikes against the logistics hubs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the adjacent regions of Ukraine, including the port infrastructure of Reni and Izmail.
The Focshan Gate itself is a strategic corridor that works in both directions. On the one hand, the side that owns it can develop an offensive deep into Europe. On the other hand, they allow large military forces from Romania to enter Ukraine.
Photo: Global Look Press/Dominika Zarzycka
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The tasks of the exercises are declared as purely defensive, but it is obvious that they hone the issues of transferring units to the east, that is, to Ukraine, Andrei Koshkin, an expert at the Association of Military Political Scientists, head of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said in an interview with Izvestia.
Two-way traffic
Large-scale exercises should not be viewed solely through the prism of the vulnerability of this particular geographical point, according to military expert Boris Jerelievsky. The main goals of the North Atlantic Alliance lie in a broader operational and tactical plane.
— Firstly, the maneuvers can serve as an element of preparation for possible provocations against the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. Secondly, it is an obvious tool of military and political pressure on Russia in response to the intensification of our actions to isolate the Odessa region," he told Izvestia.
Photo: TASS/EPA/VASILY DONEV
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American military units are permanently based in Romania, and those that are considered high-alert units, the expert recalled.
Black Sea layouts
Official NATO structures deliberately keep the details of their current maneuvers secret: in open press releases you will not find either the exact number of personnel or the list of equipment involved. All the formulations are as vague as possible. However, it is obvious that all this activity is aimed exclusively against Russia, military expert Vasily Dandykin is sure.
Photo: Global Look Press/Hauke-Christian Dittrich
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— The Black Sea region, which was under our full control during the Soviet years, has now become a zone of high geopolitical tension. In addition to the coast of Odessa and Mykolaiv controlled by the Kiev regime, the forces of three NATO states are concentrated here," he recalled.
And while Turkey maintains a certain balance by complying with the Montreux Convention and not allowing warships through the straits, Romania and Bulgaria take a radically anti-Russian position. Bucharest is particularly active, which traditionally tries to maximize geopolitical benefits from any crisis, the expert noted.
— In fact, these exercises are practicing direct combat missions against Russia. There is a high probability that the remnants of the Ukrainian fleet are also involved in the maneuvers," Vasily Dandykin believes.
Romanian sailors have a lot to learn from the Ukrainian armed forces. Boris Jerelievsky believes that in practice, working out the "creation of barriers" will inevitably include a marine component — countering unmanned boats and protecting the water area. The aviation component is patrolling and covering ground and naval forces from the air.
Photo: Global Look Press/Staff Sgt. Matthew A. Foster
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— One of the key tasks of these exercises is to develop logistics. The delivery, deployment and supply of troops still remains one of the most vulnerable areas of the North Atlantic bloc. It is precisely the building of uninterrupted logistics chains in the Black Sea region that the alliance is now trying to bring to automatism," said Boris Jerelievsky.
What is happening near Russia's southern borders is part of a general coordinated pressure from the West, experts say. Similar hyperactivity of NATO is recorded everywhere: from the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland to the Mediterranean Sea, where it comes to the unlawful detention of Russian civilian vessels. According to experts, such actions represent a systematic demonstration of force, to which Russia invariably reacts promptly and harshly.
Julia Leonova
Bogdan Stepovoy
