BRUSSELS, 3 Jul: Russia\u2019s armed forces are bruised but by no means beaten in the war in Ukraine, a top NATO military officer said Monday, as he laid out the biggest revamp to the organization\u2019s military plans since the Cold War should Moscow dare to widen the conflict.
\n\u201cThey might not be 11 feet tall, but they are certainly not 2 feet tall,\u201d the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, told reporters. \u201cSo, we should never underestimate the Russians and their ability to bounce back.\u201d
\nU.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are set to endorse a major shakeup of the alliance\u2019s planning system at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next week.
\nNATO, as an organization, does not provide weapons or ammunition to Ukraine. It\u2019s sought to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia. At the same time, it is massively reinforcing the security of member countries near Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
\nAround 40,000 troops are on standby from Estonia in the north down to Romania on the Black Sea. About 100 aircraft take to the skies in that territory each day, and a total of 27 warships are operating in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. Those numbers are set to rise.
\nUnder its new plans, NATO aims to have up to 300,000 troops ready to move to its eastern flank within 30 days. The plans divide its territory into three zones \u2013 the high north and Atlantic area, a zone north of the Alps, and another in southern Europe.
\nBauer said that NATO\u2019s new planning is based on the strength of the Russian army before President Vladimir Putin launched the war on Ukraine almost 17 months ago. He said the war has depleted Russia\u2019s army, but not its navy or air force.
\nOf Russia\u2019s ground forces, around \u201c94% is now engaged in the war in Ukraine,\u201d Bauer said.
\n\u201cWhat we see in general is that the Russians are careful around NATO. They are not for seeking a conflict with NATO. I think that is a sign that they are very, very busy,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the land domain, I don\u2019t think they have a lot of forces available to do anything to anyone else.\u201d
\n\u201cBut we are convinced that the Russians are going to reconstitute,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will continue to look at them as a serious threat, in the maritime, and in the air especially, and in space, they are still very, very, capable, let alone of course in nuclear.\u201d
\nA revolt by Wagner mercenaries in Russia late last month raised deep security concerns in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland after a deal was reached for their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to be allowed to take refuge in Belarus.
\nLithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that neighboring countries would face a heightened danger if the Wagner Group deploys its \u201cserial killers\u201d just over their border.
\nVilnius lies around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Belarus border.
\nLithuania wants to have a permanent NATO presence on its territory. Germany signaled last week that it would be prepared to base soldiers there if requested. For the moment, though, NATO sees no imminent threat coming from Belarus.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re confident we know what\u2019s going on, and right now we see no changes. But that doesn\u2019t take our eye off what we need to do every day,\u201d Major General Matthew Van Wagenen told reporters. \u201cIf we needed to change posture, we could do it rapidly.\u201d
\nNATO\u2019s 31 member countries took part in a \u201cforce generation conference\u201d last week in an effort to understand how many troops and how much equipment the alliance might have at its disposal to respond to any Russian attack, both in the short and longer term.
\nBoth officers were upbeat about the results, although they declined to provide details for security reasons. Experts and some NATO diplomats, however, have expressed doubt about the willingness of member countries to put a total of 300,000 troops on standby.
\n\u201cI would classify it as highly successful,\u201d Van Wagenen said. \u201cI can assure you, we are in a position right now that we know what\u2019s missing and how we need to grow this in the future.\u201d
\nIn terms of NATO\u2019s ability to execute the plans, should they be needed in the future, Bauer welcomed the expected commitment in Vilnius by Biden and his counterparts to boost defense spending, which should help provide commanders with the equipment they need.
\nIn 2014, NATO committed to move toward spending 2% of GDP on their military budgets by 2024. At their July 11-12 summit, the leaders will set the 2% figure as a spending floor, rather than a ceiling to aim for. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS, 3 Jul: Russia\u2019s armed forces are bruised but by no means beaten in the war in Ukraine, a top NATO military officer said Monday, as he laid out the biggest revamp to the organization\u2019s military plans since the Cold War should Moscow dare to widen the conflict. \u201cThey might not be 11 feet tall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-219654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}