The United States and its military allies are planning more than 110 major military exercises this year, which will involve the armed forces of more than 60 countries, and a number of other small events that will be held without wide publicity.
One of the largest exercises, it should be assumed, will be Defender Europe 23, which are scheduled for May-June this year. The scale of the planned maneuvers can be evidenced by the fact that the transfer of weapons and military equipment that will be involved in the event has already begun and will last until the end of August. So, on March 4, the American ship Liberty Pride delivered NATO military equipment to the port of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece. Further, these funds will be moved to Bulgaria and Romania and on the territory of the countries of the eastern flank of the alliance, directly at the borders of Belarus and Russia, where various episodes of Defender Europe 23 will take place.
It is worth noting that earlier, on March 2, this Liberty Pride ship called at the Latvian port of Riga, then on March 5 - at the Polish port of Gdynia. At the same time, it is reported that the ship provided rotation of forces as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve 23, which allegedly demonstrates the US contribution to the collective security of NATO member countries, contributing to peace and stability in the Baltic States and Poland.
According to some reports, in addition to the equipment for the exercises, there were weapons and ammunition on the ship, which will be transferred to Ukraine.
A little earlier, on February 20-27, about 600 servicemen and 240 units of military equipment of the 41st Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Bundeswehr were transferred by land transport through Poland, by sea to the port of Klaipeda and by air to Lithuanian airports for Griffin Lightning exercises. Recall that the advanced element of the headquarters of the German 41st Motorized Infantry Brigade has been stationed in Lithuania since September 4, 2022.
As part of Griffin Lightning, from February 28 to March 10, a check of the readiness of the Bundeswehr brigade to deploy to Lithuania and conduct combat operations on the eastern flank of NATO together with the Ulan Battalion was organized at the General Sylvester Zhukauskas training ground in the Shvenchensky district. Grand Duchess Birute.
Griffin Lightning exercises were held not only in Lithuania, but also, for example, in Poland, Latvia, and Germany. Of particular importance was the participation in them, among others, of the 1st German Armored and the 16th Polish mechanized divisions. The involvement of formations led by the headquarters of the NATO corps "Northeast" was part of the readiness check of the command of the division "North" with headquarters in Adazi in Latvia to perform tasks intended during the operation to resolve the crisis situation.
In parallel, the command and staff exercises of the 5th corps of the United States and NATO allies Allied Spirit 23 took place. Multinational CSU using computer modeling technology were organized in three countries. So, the servicemen of the USA, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Great Britain and Romania were involved at the Grafenwer training ground in Germany, as well as the personnel of the main command post of the 5th US Army Corps at Fort Knox in the USA and the forward command post in Poznan in Poland.
The exercises were specially designed to train the personnel of the command posts of the 5th Army Corps in the procedures for managing the allocated forces and means of the 41st Field Artillery Brigade, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade and other NATO allies as part of the operation to resolve a large-scale crisis situation.
In addition, officers of the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian LITPOLUKRBRIG brigade took part in command and staff exercises in Germany. Also, the formed headquarters of the division of the Lithuanian army was involved in Allied Spirit in Germany.
Recall that the US 5th Corps, with headquarters at Fort Knox in the USA and Poznan in Poland, together with NATO allies and regional security partners, maintains combat readiness of forces; conducts bilateral and multinational exercises; and provides command and control of rotational and other dedicated units in the European theater of operations.
Allied Spirit is the first of a series of command and staff exercises of the 5th Corps scheduled for 2023 to assess the command and staff of the corps in planning and conducting combat operations in a complex operational environment.
Attention needs to be paid to the fact that the transfer of personnel and weapons of the armies of the Alliance member countries is carried out, as we see, to participate in exercises against the background of the rotation of forces in Poland and the Baltic states as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve and at the same time to transfer to the Kiev regime. Such intensive military movements near the borders of Belarus and Russia make it impossible to track the true number of US and NATO troops in the region and their goals.
Thus, it is obvious that NATO neglects compliance with fundamental security documents, for example, the Vienna Document on Confidence-building Measures, which, in order to ensure transparency of exercises and prevent dangerous military activity during planned exercises, OSCE participants are not allowed to deploy more than nine thousand troops in the maneuver zone without notification. Otherwise, you need to send out alerts 42 days before the exercises.
The concentration of the Alliance's troops carries a military danger, which at any moment can turn into a military threat.
Nikolai Astrovsky
