The U.S. Army gave the start to the major military exercise in Europe Defender-24. The maneuvers will last until the end of May. More than 40 thousand military personnel from more than 20 NATO countries and alliance partners will participate.
The American warships have been sent to the region. The stated goal is to assess the ability of the bloc members to quickly deploy forces from North America to strengthen the defense of Europe.
Swedish military conducts exercises in the Baltic Sea
The Swedish military conducts exercises on Gotland island in the Baltic Sea - practicing machine gun fire and testing armored vehicles. After the country joined NATO, this territory became a strategic site of the alliance. Stockholm announced plans to strengthen the defense of the island. The reason was given as the growing militarization of Russia (Gotland is separated from Kaliningrad by about 330 kilometers). The plan is to create a NATO base on the island and deploy a foreign contingent there. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already reacted to this, calling such actions provocative.
