MOSCOW (Reuters) – NATO’s four-month Steadfast Defender military exercises near Russia’s borders are evidence the alliance is preparing for potential conflict with Russia, a spokeswoman said on Saturday of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova this week rejected NATO accusations that Russia is engaged in hybrid attacks against its member states, saying it was misleading “disinformation” aimed at deflecting people’s attention to the alliance’s activities.
It was NATO that waged a hybrid war against Russia by supporting Ukraine with weapons, intelligence and finance, she said in a statement.
“At present, the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War, Steadfast Defender, is taking place near the Russian borders. According to their scenario, coalition actions against Russia are practiced using all instruments, including hybrid and conventional weapons,” she said in a statement. statement.
“We must admit that NATO is seriously preparing for a ‘potential conflict’ with us.”
Relations between Russia and the West have been at their most hostile in decades following the start of Russia’s military conflict in Ukraine in 2022.
Announcing the start of the exercises in January, NATO said 90,000 troops would participate, outlining how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if conflict were to arise. to burst. The exercises, NATO’s largest exercise since the Cold War, are expected to run through May.
Russia said at the time that the exercises marked an “irrevocable return” by the alliance to Cold War plans.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Frances Kerry)
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