NATO is organizing maneuvers with 90,000 soldiers to deter Russia

Biggest exercise since 1991
NATO is organizing major exercises with 90,000 soldiers to deter Russia

The planned NATO exercise was named “Steadfast Defender”

© Daniel Naupold / DPA

NATO is planning one of its largest maneuvers in years with the “Steadfast Defender” exercise starting in February. The scenario of the exercise is a Russian attack on Allied territory.

The NATO wants to mobilize around 90,000 soldiers for a major maneuver to deter Russia. The DPA news agency learned this on the sidelines of a meeting of top military representatives of the defense alliance in Brussels. The exercise called “Steadfast Defender,” which begins in February, will be the military alliance’s largest since the end of the Cold War. In particular, the alerting and deployment of national and multinational land forces should be trained.

According to information from the German Press Agency, the scenario of the exercise is a Russian attack on Allied territory, which leads to the declaration of the so-called alliance case according to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. The latter regulates the obligation to provide assistance in the alliance and states that an armed attack against one or more allies is viewed as an attack against all.

Largest NATO exercise since 2018

The largest NATO exercise to date since the end of the Cold War was organized in 2018 with a focus on Norway. Around 51,000 soldiers were involved. The last NATO maneuvers that were larger than the exercise now planned took place before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time there was, among other things, the “Return of Forces to Germany” series of maneuvers. In 1988, for example, around 125,000 soldiers were involved.

For almost two years, Ukraine has been fending off an attack by Russia with massive military aid, especially from NATO countries.

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DPA

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