Denmark has begun to deploy a combat group to Latvia as part of NATO's collective defense, the press service of the Kingdom's Ministry of Defense reports.

According to the agency, several hundred vehicles and other military equipment will be delivered from the barracks and other places of deployment to the port of Køge, from where they will follow to the Latvian territories in accordance with the decision taken by Copenhagen to allocate a combat group in the size of a battalion of up to 1 thousand people.

As emphasized in the Ministry of Defense of Denmark, the kingdom is becoming one of the largest participants in building up NATO's defensive capabilities in the Baltic region.

The department recalled that the last time the Danish side sent a battalion with such a significant number of personnel ten years ago to Afghanistan, and in Europe such a Danish military presence was in Kosovo back in 1999.

The Kingdom's Defense Ministry also noted that, in addition to sending a battalion group to Latvia, Danish military personnel are in a NATO brigade deployed in Estonia.

The increase in its military presence near the borders of Russia in the Danish Ministry of Defense is associated with the "Russian threat".

According to the head of this department, Morten Bedskov, Russia is “a serious challenge in the field of security policy for Denmark and the rest of Europe.”

“Denmark is taking responsibility for European security and is making one of the largest contributions to the build-up of NATO forces in the east.

We take on the responsibility that the main ally should take on, ”TASS quotes the head of the Danish Ministry of Defense.

At the Russian borders

Recall that on March 24, the heads of state and government of the North Atlantic Alliance issued a joint statement on the intensification of NATO defense plans "in response to Russia's actions."

As a result, units of the reaction forces and a contingent of 40 thousand military personnel were deployed on the eastern flank of the alliance.

In addition, as stated in the message, there are significant air and naval forces and assets “under the direct command of NATO” in this region.

“We are also establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia,” NATO said in a statement.

  • US President Joe Biden's press conference after the NATO Heads of State and Government Summit on March 24

  • AP

  • © Markus Schreiber

Later, on April 9, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper that against the backdrop of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the bloc plans a full-scale deployment of permanent military forces on the eastern flank in order to counter "Russian aggression" in the future.

“We asked our military leaders to present options for the so-called reset, long-term adaptation of NATO.

I expect the leadership of the alliance to make decisions on this issue as part of the upcoming June meeting at the NATO summit in Madrid,” Stoltenberg said.

On April 12, the press service of the North Atlantic Alliance reported that NATO member countries and partners of the bloc Finland and Sweden "spent a week of intensive cooperation" in Estonian airspace as part of the Ramstein Alloy maneuvers.

According to the press service, in addition to the air forces of Finland and Sweden, crews and aircraft from Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France, the Czech Republic and Estonia took part in the maneuvers.

“These regular NATO exercises have focused on real-life scenarios faced by military personnel carrying out the NATO air patrol mission in the Baltic region,” the message posted on the alliance’s website said.

The document notes that during training, the military personnel worked out air combat techniques, air refueling, as well as "identification and escort of an aircraft that has lost contact."

“The exercises provided an opportunity to conduct joint training and increase the ability of the NATO Air Force to operate both jointly and with partners,” the alliance’s press service said.

“We should expect provocations”

As military expert Alexei Leonkov noted in a conversation with RT, the actions of NATO countries, in particular Denmark, which began the transfer of a combat group to Latvia, should be regarded as measures directed against Russia.

“In this way, they are preparing their troops for a possible conflict near the borders of the Russian Federation.

In addition to the deployment of troops, the states of the bloc also conducted exercises near the Russian borders, and such exercises are becoming more and more.

Moreover, most often such maneuvers have an anti-Russian orientation.

We should not forget that a contingent of NATO countries is constantly in the Baltic countries, which is present there on a rotational basis, ”the analyst recalled.

The arrival of the Danish contingent on the eastern flank of NATO indicates that the North Atlantic Alliance continues to increase its presence near the Russian borders and creates even greater tension in the Baltic region, the expert emphasized.

  • Military exercises in Latvia, March 11, 2022

  • AP

  • © Martins Zilgalvis/F64

“The Alliance has been doing this for a long time, gradually accumulating its forces near the borders of the Russian Federation.

But now this whole process is going on more intensively.

The unit conducts exercises, the contingent leaves, and the equipment remains in warehouses in the Baltic States and Poland.

That is, if NATO needs to transfer its personnel there, it can even be done covertly, since the equipment does not have to be transported, it will already be deployed, ”Leonkov explained.

According to the expert, taking into account such NATO activity, the Russian Ministry of Defense is working to increase the military potential on the western borders.

“In this part of the Russian Federation, military equipment and weapons are being regularly updated.

In addition, a layered air defense system has been built there, and military units have been moved to the borders.

The Russian Federation has large contingents of ground forces and aerospace forces there, as well as the Baltic Fleet, ”the analyst explained.

At the same time, according to the expert's forecasts, the tension on the western borders of Russia and on the eastern flag of NATO will only increase.

“In the Baltic region, I do not yet see prerequisites for detente.

On the contrary, it will increase.

We should also expect provocations from the bloc or any incidents due to the increase in the number of NATO military near our borders.

Their goal may be to discredit the Russian armed forces and demonize Russia, ”the expert admitted.

In turn, Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of Moscow State Pedagogical University, noted that anti-Russian sentiments are so strong in NATO that even such a small country, which does not have serious military resources, like Denmark, seeks to implement its tasks within the bloc and move towards the borders of Russia .

“This cannot but cause concern in Moscow, since we are actually seeing a significant saturation of the territories near the Russian Federation by the armed forces of NATO states.

At the same time, Denmark is not just a small kingdom, this country is among the leaders in terms of Russophobia and the level of aggressiveness of the information war against Russia, ”the analyst said in an interview with RT.

Shapovalov recalled that NATO has been deploying its military infrastructure near the borders of the Russian Federation for many years, especially, according to him, this applies to the Baltic region.

“We see that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are turning into a training ground and an outpost of the North Atlantic Alliance, where the military takes the place of tourists.

If recently these countries were a tourist province of Europe, now they are turning into one large NATO military base deployed to counter Russia, ”the expert emphasized.

And the more NATO military deploys near the borders of the Russian Federation, the more alarming the situation at its borders will be, the analyst is sure.

“There is a serious danger of an escalation of tension, but Moscow is reacting adequately to this: Russia’s western borders are reliably protected, there is no potential threat that the Russian Federation could not cope with.

Russia has a high potential to repel all possible attacks,” the analyst concluded.