The Atlantic Alliance will continue with the nuclear deterrent exercises scheduled for next week despite the context of the war in Ukraine and the threats launched from Moscow in response to the military advances of the Kyiv forces. "If we canceled them, we would be sending the wrong signal to Moscow", Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, who has emphasized that they were scheduled even before the beginning of the Russian invasion and has insisted that "it is a training that is carried out every year to keep our deterrence safe and effective” against a possible nuclear attack.
The exercise, known as 'Steadfast Noon', will include the participation of 14 countries and will take place in various parts of Western Europe, more than a thousand kilometers from Russia. Usually this type of maneuver lasts for a week and involves the mobilization of air defense forces, such as planes capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
"Now is the right time to be clear and firm, and to make it clear that NATO is there to defend its allies," Stoltenberg stressed after President Vladimir Putin issued not-so-veiled threats to respond with the use of atomic weapons. . "Russia knows that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be waged," said the former Norwegian prime minister. However, the Atlantic Alliance takes Putin's messages seriously and closely follows the situation of the forces. "We have not seen any movement in their disposition but we remain vigilant," Stoltenberg said at the press conference prior to the meeting of allied defense ministers that begins tomorrow at NATO headquarters.
One of the issues on the conclave's agenda is the rearmament of the allies, necessary both to keep their own arsenals in shape, after more than seven months of war, and to continue supplying Kyiv with weapons. The latest attacks by Russian forces reveal Moscow's "weakness" and desperation at this point in the war, when "Ukraine has the momentum," said the Allied Secretary General. But to maintain it, it needs "a wide range" of military equipment that includes small arms, artillery, armored vehicles, anti-aircraft and anti-tank defenses, as well as fuel, winter equipment and communication systems, among others.
