NATO is mounting massive war games as a message to the Russians. They best take heed or their next failed gambit will hit much closer to home.

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Troops from NATO and its European allies are preparing military exercises that the UK is calling one of the biggest maneuvers since the Cold War.

The exercises will take place in Finland, Poland, North Macedonia and along the Estonian-Latvian border. They will include troops from NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force, which includes non-NATO members Finland and Sweden.

“The security of Europe has never been more important,” U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Friday. “These exercises will see our troops join forces with allies and partners across NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force in a show of solidarity and strength in one of the largest shared deployments since the Cold War.”

British Commander Field Army Lieutenant General Ralph Wooddisse added that “the scale of the deployment, coupled with the professionalism, training and agility of the British Army, will deter aggression at a scale not seen in Europe this century.”

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This could take a while, says NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. “We need to be prepared for the long term,” he said at a summit in Brussels. “There is absolutely the possibility that this war will drag on and last for months and years.”

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United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence tweeted that “due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited and achieved at significant cost to Russian forces.”

“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much, much bigger… They have colossal losses,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych also said.

“In addition, Russian occupiers are robbing peasants,” the Ukrainian military wrote on Facebook. “For example, more than 60 tons of wheat were stolen from an agricultural society in the town of Kamianka-Dniprovska together with a truck.”

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The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.

The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 29 April 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/NRgC0XnO6B

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/8qXLAsMFCd

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) April 29, 2022

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Zelenskyy is grateful to us. “Grateful to @POTUS and the American people for the leadership in supporting Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression. We defend common values ​​- democracy and freedom. We appreciate the ’s help. Today it is needed more than ever!”

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Ukes want what they were promised. “Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons for the sake of world peace,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Friday morning. “We have then been knocking on NATO’s door, but it never opened. Security vacuum led to Russian aggression. The world owes Ukraine security and we ask states to decide which security guarantees they are ready to provide.”

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The Brits report, “Fighting has been particularly heavy around Lysychansk and Severodonetsk,” in the region, “with an attempted advance south from Izium towards Slovyansk,” the update said.

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FNC: “The North Carolina National Guard and several other states’ plan to send armored vehicles to Ukraine as part of a larger U.S. aid package.

The N.C. Army National Guard is providing M-113 Armored Personnel Carriers at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense, Gov. Roy Cooper said yesterday. Other states have made similar commitments.

In February, Cooper signed an executive order that directed state government agencies and departments to review all existing contracts and operations and to terminate any agreements or operations that directly benefit Russian entities.”

This piece was written by David Kamioner on April 29, 2022. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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