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The Vilnius NATO summit made a historic decision to contain Russia and repel its military attacks. The member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance recognize that the eastern flank can become one of the first lines of defense in the event of Russian aggression. Today, December 20, an expert on international security of the “Democratic Initiatives” foundation named after Mr. Ilka Kucheriva Taras Zhovtenko. Thus, he commented on the information that a number of European states approve the placement of the American contingent on their territory, therefore, they are afraid of what might happen from the side of the Russian Federation.
“Strategic decisions were reached at the Vilnius NATO summit this year, and now practical steps are being taken to implement them. The Vilnius summit made quite serious strategic decisions regarding, first of all, the military training of the Alliance for the possible not only deterrence of Russia, but also the repulsion of a military attack by the Russian Armed Forces,” Zhovtenko said.
According to the expert, in this context, the north of Europe is one of the strategic directions from the point of view of a possible Russian strike, and for the Alliance it is one of the priority directions where it is still necessary to work in terms of preparation in order to be as ready as possible to repel such a potential military aggression from Russia.
“Because since 2014, the Alliance has more or less prepared to repel such a military threat in Eastern Europe. This is the concept of the so-called enhanced forward basing of NATO, which the Alliance began to develop after 2014. The essence of this concept boils down to the fact that NATO member states recognize that the eastern flank will be one of the first lines of defense of the NATO collective security system. And given that the countries of the eastern flank will have to deal on the battlefield with an adversary that emphasizes quantity and tries to take numbers, not quality, then, accordingly, the countries of the eastern flank need more weapons, they need these weapons closer, more readiness is needed in terms of the availability of tools to repel this aggression,” he says.
In this way, the countries of the eastern flank will give time to larger NATO member countries, such as Great Britain, France or the USA, to mobilize their own resources as much as possible and to directly participate in the defense of the eastern flank, the expert clarified. “And if such work has been completed for Eastern Europe, and we can see now from the situation with Poland, from the way Poland interacts in a military format with the USA, this work is close to completion. The Poles are potentially ready to host about 100,000 American servicemen. In case of aggression by Russia, this number can be tripled in the shortest possible time. Plus, Poland is, in fact, turning into an arms hub for the maximum deterrence of Russia’s potential military aggression in Eastern Europe. As for Northern Europe, such actions by NATO have not yet taken place, given that Finland and Sweden only recently joined the Alliance and only recently were able to formally become participants in the implementation of the same concept, only not in the east of Europe, but in the northeast,” said Zhovtenko.
Therefore, he summarized, the way in which the USA is primarily increasing military and military-strategic cooperation with Finland, Sweden, and Denmark are practical steps so that Northern Europe is also as ready as possible for not just deterring, but also repelling a real military invasion from of the Russian army.
