NATO is arming itself massively in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine. This is particularly visible on the eastern flank – also thanks to German participation.
NATO is making progress in its efforts to strengthen its eastern flank.
As a spokeswoman for the military alliance confirmed to the German Press Agency, the four new multinational battlegroups in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia have reached the first stage of operational readiness. Its construction was only announced a few weeks ago.
NATO initially did not comment on the exact composition and size of the so-called battle groups. According to a statement from March 21, however, 2,100 soldiers from countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the USA were already present in Slovakia at the time. In Hungary there were 800 soldiers from Croatia, in Bulgaria 900 from the USA and in Romania 3300 from countries such as France, Belgium, Italy and the USA.
Battlegroups significantly strengthened
The new battlegroups are intended to further increase deterrence and defense capabilities in light of the Russian war against Ukraine. So far, NATO has only permanently stationed multinational units in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and in Poland. Normally, these battlegroups are about 1000 to 1200 soldiers strong, but they have recently been significantly strengthened because of the Ukraine war.
“We now have 40,000 soldiers under direct NATO command in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday. In addition, there would be hundreds of thousands of troops on increased alert and hundreds of ships and planes.
Numerous German soldiers are also involved in the deterrence against Russia. Germany is currently leading a battle group in Lithuania. Air force soldiers with the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system were also deployed to Slovakia in March.
Brigades in the Eastern Alliance area?
It was initially unclear when the new battlegroups in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria would also receive the so-called Full Operational Capability certification after the Initial Operational Capability. It is also still unclear what the long-term NATO presence on the eastern flank should look like.
One option is to station brigades in the eastern alliance area for the first time. They could each be around 5,000 soldiers strong and be supplemented, for example, by elements of the air and sea forces or special forces.
However, such a step is likely to further increase tensions with Russia. Moscow would probably argue that the long-term deployment of such brigades is not compatible with the NATO-Russia Founding Act. In it, NATO committed itself to refraining from permanently stationing “substantial combat troops” in the eastern alliance area.
The battalion-sized battlegroups stationed up to now do not fall into this category according to the NATO interpretation. At the same time, it is considered unlikely that NATO will refrain from stationing brigades because of the Founding Act.
Secretary General Stoltenberg has already made it clear that Russia cannot expect NATO to stick to all the 1997 agreements. The Founding Act has a clear connection to the security environment in 1997, when Russia was still seen as a strategic partner, he said recently. Today we are in a completely different security environment and NATO will do “what is necessary”.
Source: Stern
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