The size of NATO’s Steadfast Defender 2024 workouts mark an “irrevocable return” of the alliance to Chilly Struggle schemes, Russia’s Deputy Overseas Minister Alexander Grushko advised the state RIA information company in remarks revealed on Sunday.
NATO stated on Thursday it was launching its largest train because the Chilly Struggle involving some 90,000 troops, rehearsing how US troops might reinforce European allies in international locations bordering Russia and on the alliance’s japanese flank if a battle have been to flare up with a “near-peer” adversary.
“These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia,” Grushko advised RIA.
“An exercise of this scale … marks the final and irrevocable return of NATO to the Cold War schemes, when the military planning process, resources and infrastructure are being prepared for confrontation with Russia.”
NATO didn’t point out Russia by title in its announcement. However its high strategic doc identifies Russia as probably the most important and direct menace to NATO members’ safety.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in what Kyiv and its Western allies have stated was an unprovoked imperialistic land seize.
Moscow, and its chief diplomat Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov, have since typically accused “the collective West” of conducting a “hybrid war” in opposition to Russia by backing Ukraine by monetary and navy help.
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