On Wednesday, May 19, the multinational Noble Jump 2021 maneuvers will start, which will take place in Romania and Bulgaria.
This is reported by the Romanian Ministry of National Defense.
"Noble Jump 2021 is a surprise international military exercise, the planning and execution of which is the responsibility of the Allied Armed Forces Command (NATO. -
RT
) in Naples," the ministry said in a statement.
It is noted that the training will last until June 2, their official goal is to check "the combat capability of the Joint High-Readiness Task Force, as well as the status of the implementation of the Preparedness Action Plan in Bulgaria and Romania."
According to the Romanian Ministry of Defense, the first units of this task force have already arrived "by land routes" to the territory of the country to participate in the maneuvers.
“Thus, eight military convoys of approximately 190 servicemen and 120 units of military equipment entered the country through the Giurgiu border point,” the ministry said in a press release.
As specified in the North Atlantic Alliance, in total, during the maneuvers, about four thousand servicemen from 12 countries will be involved.
NATO also explained that the Noble Jump 2021 will be held under the auspices of the Steadfast Defender 2021 maneuvers, which, in turn, are an integral part of the Defender Europe 2021 exercises.
Scale of maneuvers
We will remind, Defender Europe - annual training NATO, which is led by the United States Ground Forces.
This year, these maneuvers will be the largest in Europe over the past 25 years.
They are held simultaneously in 16 countries of the region with the participation of about 28 thousand military personnel.
Trainings have been running since March and are due to end in June.
The Pentagon stated that the Defender Europe 2021 exercise was supposedly defensive.
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that they are closely monitoring "the situation, the progress of the transfer and deployment of NATO forces in Europe" during Defender Europe 2021, said the head of the Russian department Sergei Shoigu.
According to him, the increase in the military presence of the United States and the bloc in Europe leads to an increase in the military danger.
As the Russian Defense Minister noted, “the military infrastructure is being modernized, the intensity of operational and combat training is growing, and the American concept of“ 4 to 30 ”is being implemented.
NATO exercise Swift Response in Romania, May 2021
© Spc.
Jabari Clyburn / US Army
Recall that this program involves the formation in NATO of groups of 30 motorized infantry battalions, air squadrons and warships, which are ready for operation for 30 days.
It is worth noting that, as part of Defender Europe 2021, the Trojan Footprint - South exercises were also held in Bulgaria from May 3 to 16, which, as the Ministry of Defense of the republic noted, demonstrate the deterrent potential of the North Atlantic Alliance.
More than eight NATO countries took part in the training, including the United States, North Macedonia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
In addition, in May, Swift Response maneuvers, also associated with Defender Europe 2021, took place in Bulgaria, Romania and Estonia.
In addition to Swift Response, Defender Europe 2021 exercises are organizationally linked to other trainings, in particular, the Saber Guardian, in which Bulgaria will also take part.
Important foothold
As Nikolai Mezhevich, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted, despite the fact that NATO countries, including Bulgaria and Romania, declare the “defense” nature of the exercises conducted on their territory, “these maneuvers are directed against a specific state - Russia, which the bloc has repeatedly and directly called his opponent. "
“Officially, of course, it is broadcast that the states of the North Atlantic Alliance are simply training, testing their effectiveness and compatibility.
However, against the background of the bloc's permanent statements that the Russian Federation is an enemy with whom NATO does not exclude a fight, there are no doubts about the true goals of Defender Europe 2021 and all the exercises included in it, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.
According to Mezhevich, it is no coincidence that the alliance needs to prepare military equipment and test it "in locations as close to real conditions as possible and as close to the Russian borders as possible."
“If NATO is not preparing for a war, then for a provocation against Russia.
The North Atlantic Alliance has already created tension at the borders of the Russian Federation by such actions, which it is now only exacerbating, feeding the threat to regional security, ”the analyst emphasized.
As for why a number of NATO exercises are being held precisely in Bulgaria and Romania, Mezhevich explained that “in addition to containing Russia,” the alliance faces the task of checking the level of combat readiness of individual countries participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“The NATO leadership needs to determine whether it’s not in vain that the military of these states receive their salaries.
However, it is important to note that these countries have an extremely small military potential and represent the very first theater of military operations that burns out quickly.
In general, for a serious military conflict, the functionality of Romania and Bulgaria will be small: it does not matter who wins in a hypothetical global conflict - there will be simply no one to celebrate victory or defeat in these countries, ”the expert believes.
As noted, in turn, Doctor of Military Sciences, Captain 1st Rank (retired) Konstantin Sivkov, the exercises in the region of Romania and Bulgaria are designed to work out NATO's actions in case “a situation arises in which the Russian Federation is forced to intervene in solving problems of territorial integrity and security of Transnistria ”.
"Romania and Bulgaria from the point of view of their territorial location are of great importance for NATO, since these states are one of the most important footholds for the implementation of a number of goals, including the conduct of hostilities in the Black Sea basin," Sivkov said in a conversation with RT.
NATO exercise Swift Response in Romania, May 2021
© Spc.
Jabari Clyburn / US Army
Sergey Ermakov, an expert at the RISS Research Coordination Center, in turn, expressed the opinion that the real goal of the Noble Jump 2021 exercise is not only to check the combat readiness of Romania and Bulgaria, but also to see how NATO's adaptive presence on the southern flank actually works, and also to increase it. military potential.
“It is in this part of Europe that the alliance is facing clear contradictions within the bloc between the allies of the Mediterranean, including over the development of the Black Sea region.
On the southern flank there is also some military and technical lagging behind, as well as various kinds of threats, in particular, there is a serious problem of international terrorism.
However, NATO cannot voice this complex of difficulties, therefore, in order to carry out its militaristic actions, it speaks only of the Russian threat, "the analyst said in a commentary on RT.
Ermakov also noted that in addition to creating tensions along the borders of Russia, the North Atlantic Alliance, through numerous exercises within the framework of Defender Europe 2021, "is trying to demonstrate to the West that the alliance is monolithic, and the countries that are part of the military bloc were able to overcome the crisis of identity and trust."
“NATO wants to show with all its might that its members have resolved feuds among themselves and, as a result, are capable of conducting such large-scale exercises.
But this does not negate the main goal - the bloc wants to send a signal to Russia that if the Russian Federation is weak, NATO will try to put pressure on it with the help of military force.
However, the Russian side is not in vain following the actions of the alliance, it is ready to repel any provocations on its part, ”the expert concluded.