Russia’s military will form 20 new units in the country’s west this year to counter what it claims is a growing threat from NATO, the defense minister said Monday.
The war games, dubbed Steadfast Defender 21, are aimed at simulating the 30-nation military organization’s response to an attack on any one of its members.
The U.S., along with about 7,000 NATO forces, will leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11. CENTCOM said earlier this week it had completed about 25% of its withdrawal.
As Russia assumed the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the U.S. rallied other members to oppose Moscow’s plans to set maritime rules in the Northern Sea Route.
The Serbia-Russia exercises at a training ground near Belgrade comes as large-scale U.S. Army-led drills dubbed Defender Europe 2021 are held across Europe.
Adm. Alexander Moiseyev, the commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet, said that NATO navy ships’ presence in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea have reached levels unseen since World War II.