Russia promises to respond to NATO’s largest military drills in Europe
Russia will respond to NATO’s Defender 2020 exercise in Europe, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as cited by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
According to him, the alliance’s European exercises are “greatly concerning” to Smolenskaya Square in Moscow, and Russia cannot ignore them.
“In the context of NATO’s cooperation with the EU in the military sphere, they invented the term ‘Military Schengen’, which envisages the upgrading of all transport arteries up to NATO’s eastern border in such a way that any military vehicles, even the largest, can move without hindrance to the east. I think that this fact alone is enough to understand the danger of such games. Of course we have to respond to it,” he said.
He added, however, that Moscow’s actions should not cause any unnecessary risks.
Previously it was reported that in April-May the US will be conducting the largest scale military exercise in Europe since the end of the Cold War, in order to warn Russia against repeating its aggression. 30,000 additional US military vehicles and 20,000 US troops will be deployed in Europe. A total of more than 40,000 military personnel will be involved in the maneuvers.