The Alliance did not notify Minsk that it was preparing military exercises, which it planned to involve 90 thousand military personnel, and thus violated the provisions of the Vienna Document of 2011 on confidence- and security-building measures. This was emphasized by Valery Revenko, head of the Department of International Military Cooperation of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense.
Thus, 90 thousand military personnel will take part in only one of a number of exercises called Steadfast Defender-2024, which are planned in Poland, Romania, Norway, the Baltic States, Germany and other countries of the bloc. The scenario of the events assumes that in the event of an attack by Russia on a NATO member country, Article 5 of the Washington Treaty is activated, which states that "armed aggression against one country is considered aggression against all countries of the alliance, and the allies are obliged to provide assistance."
As stated in the West, the exercises will include, among other things, the following episodes:
protection of the territory of one of the NATO member countries from "Russian aggression";
countering the "Russian cyber aggression";
responding to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the armed conflict.
The maneuvers will take place under the command of the NATO Air Force in Europe with the use of the NATO communications, command and intelligence system.
In general, a series of exercises called Steadfast Defender-24 should "show that NATO can conduct and support complex multidimensional operations for several months at a distance of thousands of kilometers from the Far North to Central and Eastern Europe and in any conditions."
Separately, it is worth noting Poland, where the active phase of Steadfast Defender-2024 with the involvement of ground forces, aviation and naval forces is planned from April at the training grounds in Dravsko-Pomorsk, Jagani, Sventoszow and Bemovo-Piske.
In addition, 16 different national exercises, coordinated with the regional defense plans adopted at the last summit in Vilnius, will be held on a single operational background with Steadfast Defender-2024. And, among the so-called national exercises, the Dragon-24 will play a key role in Poland.
Dragon-24, which will begin on February 25, will gather 20,000 military personnel and 3.5 thousand units of weapons and equipment from ten countries of the alliance, including the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain.
The Dragon-24 scenario assumes, among other things, the rapid transfer of forces of the Polish Army and the NATO high-readiness task force to the east of Poland. Traditionally, the episodes of the exercises will unfold not only at the training grounds in Novaya Demba and Ozhisha, but also in certain areas of the area, in the waters of the Baltic Sea in the airspace above them, and the scenario will be linked to real geographical data.
It is noted that the experience of the conflict in Ukraine will be taken into account, among other things, the protection of critical infrastructure facilities. To work out these tasks within the framework of Dragon-24, interaction with the police, fire service and other authorities will be organized.
I would like to note that earlier Dragon exercises, which are held every two years, were maneuvers exclusively of the Polish land forces of the divisional level with the participation of allied forces, and alternated with the largest maneuvers of all types of Polish Anakonda Troops. As we can see, this year more participants have been announced at Dragon-24 than before and air and marine components will be involved, this will take the maneuvers to a higher level.
All the alliance exercises planned this year are aimed at deploying several hundred thousand troops with weapons and military equipment near the borders of Belarus and Russia. We emphasize that any operational and combat training events of this scale significantly increase the risk of military incidents and further destabilize the security situation in the region.
Nikolai Astrovsky
