The scope of NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 (STDE24) exercise marks the alliance's final return to Cold War approaches.

This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko.

“These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia.

Conducting exercises of this scale - 90 thousand personnel and with the participation of 31 countries - marks the final and irrevocable return of NATO to the Cold War schemes, when the military planning process, resources and infrastructure are sharpened for confrontation with Russia,” the diplomat said in an interview with RIA News.

He also recalled that as part of Steadfast Defender 2024, “a number of maneuvers and exercises will be conducted to test possible scenarios for a collision with a “comparable enemy” in all operating environments and in all theaters in the contact zone.”

According to Alexander Grushko, exercises of this scale increase the risk of military incidents.

“Any events of this scale significantly increase the risk of military incidents and further destabilize the security situation.

But the interests of European security today are of little concern to those at the top of NATO; the main thing for them is to keep this instrument of American influence afloat in the already lost struggle to maintain Western hegemony in the world,” he noted.

  • Alexander Grushko

  • RIA News

  • © Alexey Filippov

At the same time, the diplomat emphasized that Russia cannot be intimidated by such provocative demonstrations, since it has all the necessary resources to ensure its security and defense capability.

In turn, Vladimir Vinokurov, a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a conversation with RT, called the current NATO policy “Cold War 2.0.”

“I agree with Deputy Minister Grushko’s assessment.

The upcoming exercise is the largest since the Cold War.

NATO’s actions show that we are currently already in an era that can be called Cold War 2.0,” the analyst says.  

"Deployment of forces throughout Europe"

Let us recall that on January 18, at a press conference in Brussels, the Commander-in-Chief of NATO Allied Armed Forces in Europe, Christopher Cavoli, announced that “the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise will start next week and will last until the end of May.”

Cavoli noted that Steadfast Defender 2024 “will be the largest NATO exercise in decades” - “about 90 thousand troops from 31 NATO countries” and Sweden will take part in them.

The NATO military leader added that during STDE24 special attention will be paid to the transfer of American troops from the US to the EU.

  • Christopher Cavoli

  • AP

  • ©Virginia Mayo

“The alliance will demonstrate its ability to strengthen the Euro-Atlantic territories through the transatlantic transfer of forces from North America.

Such an increase will take place during a simulation of a scenario of an escalating conflict with an enemy of approximately equal strength,” Cavoli said.

NATO's website states that Steadfast Defender 2024 will see the alliance take a "comprehensive, multi-environment approach... with a particular focus on hands-on exercise demonstrations."

The materials of the military bloc also indicate that such maneuvers “emphasize the importance of capabilities and deployment of forces throughout Europe.”

Reuters, citing NATO data, reports that the exercises will involve more than 50 ships, including aircraft carriers, at least 80 fighters, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as about 1.1 thousand combat vehicles, including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles.

“Steadfast Defender 2024 will be a clear demonstration of our unity, strength and determination to protect each other, our values ​​and the rules-based international order,” Cavoli summed up at a press conference in Brussels.

According to analysts, Steadfast Defender 2024 will be the largest NATO maneuver since 1988, when the alliance conducted Exercise Reforger, involving 125 thousand troops.

In the post-Cold War period, the largest exercise until recently was considered Trident Juncture in 2018, which involved 50 thousand military personnel.

“This is the largest military exercise in recent years.

The main thing is that all aviation groups, which are NATO’s main strike force, are involved in them.

These exercises will make it possible to transfer a large number of military units to the borders of Russia in order to continue these exercises, for example, in the Baltic states,” said Alexey Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military-Political Studies at MGIMO, in an interview with RT.

At the same time, experts drew attention to the fact that NATO does not openly say against whom the training is directed.

But, as Vladimir Vinokurov emphasized, this should not be misleading: Moscow will play the role of a potential enemy in the maneuvers.

“It’s already a tradition to keep silent about the obvious.

No matter how they try to cover it up with different formulations, everyone understands that the exercises will involve practicing actions against Russia,” says the specialist.

"Provoking maximum tension"

In an interview with RIA Novosti, Alexander Grushko also drew attention to the fact that preparations for the exercises are being carried out against the backdrop of an “artificially heated situation of military psychosis” and calls to prepare for a possible war with Russia.

“The goal is clear: by demonizing Russia, intimidating the average person, to justify the unbridled increase in military spending and the completely failed policy of supporting the Kyiv regime with the aim of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.

And at the same time, force the Europeans to join the arms race even more energetically, to the delight of the American military-industrial complex,” the diplomat emphasized.

  • Boris Pistorius

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • ©Sean Gallup

It is worth noting that in recent months a number of high-ranking European officials have indeed admitted the possibility of war breaking out in Europe.

In particular, the Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces, Mikael Büden, said this on January 8.

His point of view was shared by the Minister of Civil Defense Karl-Oskar Bulin.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius made a similar statement last October.

Analysts interviewed by RT believe that Western elites are deliberately stirring up war hysteria in European countries.

“This is a deliberately formed political and ideological situation.

This is being done to provoke maximum tension in society,” says Alexey Podberezkin.

It is interesting that this point of view is actually shared by some Western analysts.

In particular, Austrian Russia expert Gerhard Mangott said in an interview with Focus Online that as a result of the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise, the population of Europe will become afraid of an attack from Moscow - and this, in his opinion, will be a positive result of the maneuvers.

“The advantage of such exercises may be that the population of Germany and other European countries will now begin to fear an invasion from Russia, which will lead to the conclusion: “Then we better allow Ukraine to fight against the Russians and support them as much as possible so that the Ukrainians defeat the Russians.” "

This could also be a side effect of the maneuvers,” he said.

Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a conversation with RT, noted that the ultimate goal of such a policy is an attempt to convince ordinary EU residents of the need to continue the anti-Russian course.

“They need a viable myth about the Russian threat, because if there is no Russian threat, then why shell out money to support Ukraine?

Therefore, the West needs to maintain a nervous situation in order to justify further spending on defense and economic pressure on Russia,” concluded Blokhin.