NATO begins drill with 30,000 troops from 25 countries, says it’s unrelated to Russia invasion

By AP 14 March 2022, 4:15 pm

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Soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment line up vehicles at the military airfield in Vilseck, Germany, Feb. 9, 2022 as they prepare for their deployment to Romania in support NATO allies and demonstrate U.S. commitment to NATO Article V. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planning to travel to Ukraine and Russia on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, in an effort to help defuse escalating tensions as Western intelligence officials warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A planned NATO exercise with about 30,000 troops from more than 25 countries from Europe and North America has begun in northern Norway.

NATO says that the drill, named Cold Response and including 200 aircraft and 50 vessels, is “not linked to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.”

The drill in NATO-member Norway, which shares a nearly 200-kilometer (124-mile) land border with Russia, will be held just a few hundred kilometers from the Russian border and was planned long before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has declined to be an observer at the exercise, which aims at having Alliance members and partners practicing working together on land, in the air and at sea, said the armed forces.

The Norwegian armed forces says it provided “thorough information” to the Russians, including the Russian Ministry of Defense, saying that was “vital for preventing misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict.”

The drill, which is held every other year, is due to end on April 1.