MOSCOW: Russia has said that NATO’s ongoing four months long military exercises near its borders, dubbed Steadfast Defender, serve as evidence of the alliance’s preparation for a potential conflict with Moscow.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rebuffed NATO’s recent allegations of Russia’s involvement in hybrid attacks on its member states, dismissing them as “misinformation” intended to divert attention from NATO’s own activities.
Zakharova said that NATO had initiated a hybrid war with Russia by providing Ukraine with arms, intelligence, and financial support.
She stated, “NATO’s largest exercise since the Cold War, Steadfast Defender, is currently underway near Russia’s borders. The scenario includes coalition actions against Russia utilizing all available instruments, including hybrid and conventional weapons. We must acknowledge that NATO is actively preparing for a ‘potential conflict’ with us.”
Tensions between Russia and the West have reached a historic nadir since Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine in 2022.
In January, NATO announced the commencement of the drills, involving 90,000 troops, aimed at rehearsing the reinforcement of European allies by U.S. forces in countries neighboring Russia and on NATO’s eastern flank in the event of a conflict. Scheduled to conclude in May, these drills constitute NATO’s largest exercise since the Cold War.
Russia characterized the drills at the time as a “definitive return” of the alliance to Cold War-era strategies.
