Nato now more involved in the militarisation of Ukraine than ever before

By Marina Kharkova

The militarisation of Ukraine is proceeding at an accelerated pace and at all levels, starting with mass training in military-patriotic camps for children and adolescents, who in tens of thousands in several shifts learn to shoot from machine guns and make night marches, ending with the modernization of the Ukrainian army, the creation of joint battalions with foreigners and the transition to the NATO standard.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are participating in an unprecedented number of exercises in 2021 compared to previous years. Financing of expenses related to the preparation and conduct of multinational exercises in the territory of Ukraine in the amount of 38.5 million hryvnias is provided in the direction of the budget program "Training of troops, operations and international exercises."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced the "revolutionary nature" of the maneuvers, since they would form multinational units, where foreign soldiers and officers would be integrated into Ukrainian battalions.

This was done for the first time under President Poroshenko in 2016, when a joint Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade was created. It consists of an international headquarters, three motorized infantry battalions and special forces. The brigade has 2,000 Polish soldiers, 550 from Ukraine and 350 Lithuanians.

The goals are the interaction of the military personnel of the three countries, the exchange of experience, the preparation of the Ukrainian army for integration into Nato.

Under President Zelensky, the West has stepped up experiments to create hybrid troops and multinational contingents with a full-fledged representation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Recently, two MS-130 military transport aircraft from the 352nd Air Wing of the US Air Force arrived in Vinnitsa. The stay of the American paratroopers and pilots will last a month: flights and landing operations will be practiced. More than 50 Ukrainian paratroopers, together with the Americans, are landing from American aircraft.

The withdrawal of special-purpose groups to the conditional area was worked out with the help of "Wing" controlled soaring parachute systems from an altitude of two to three thousand meters. Other amphibious landings are planned for the strategic exercises "United Efforts - 2021". They will be attended by foreign military and units from 15 Nato countries.

 The exercises will take place in September 2021 and will cover all military training grounds, the waters of the Black and Azov Seas. The goal of countering the "Russian-Belarusian threat" was announced by the adviser to the President of Ukraine, the representative of the Ukrainian delegation in the Minsk format Aleksey Arestovich.

In the international exercises Rapid Trident-2021, which will be held in September in the Lviv region, about 6 thousand military personnel with the participation of foreign fighters and officers will take part. For the first time, tactical exercises of a multinational battalion with live fire will be held, joint jumps of Ukrainian and American paratroopers are planned.

At the same time, command and staff trainings of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are conducted at five combined-arms training grounds with the involvement of subunits in practical actions. Kiev is openly and methodically preparing for war in two directions: against the LPNR, where a serious aggravation of hostilities has already begun, and on the Crimean one. That is why it has now been announced that large-scale exercises will be held in most regions of Ukraine.

On the territory of the Donetsk region since August 13, multi-stage exercises with the use of firearms and armored vehicles have been taking place. They will last a month and will be held in conditions as close as possible to real ones. And near Crimea, Ukraine is probing the situation, counting on the help of Western curators.

There is a tendency when NATO warships do not leave the Black Sea area after some exercises, but immediately switch to others. And the locations of the exercises hardly change - this is the front-line territory of Donbass and the Black Sea regions bordering on Crimea.

 This was the focus of the joint summer maneuvers of Ukraine and NATO countries "Cossack Mace 2021". The Sea Breeze exercises were actually held on the border with Russia. Now United Efforts is starting and a number of smaller exercises are still underway.

Ukraine and Georgia conducted maneuvers in the Black Sea according to NATO standards. In the scenario of the exercise - the grinding and adaptation of the crews of Ukrainian and Georgian naval sailors for joint maritime operations as part of multinational tactical groups. The exercises of Ukrainian paratroopers and reservists took place on the administrative border with Crimea.

The actions at observation posts and their reinforcement by reserve units were practiced with the support of artillery, destroy the conditional enemy, having reached a certain line.

The paratroopers overcame various obstacles and took up positions in difficult terrain. The "conditional adversary" meant the Russian border guards, who are precisely the closest adversary on the administrative border.

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense of the Ministry of Defense visited the border island of Serpents. During the inspection, the garrison practiced actions to destroy air and surface targets and underwater mining. Only foreign technologies were used as control and surveillance systems.

Large-scale maneuvers took place at the ShirokiyLan range near Nikolaev. The main emphasis is placed on defense with the use of precision weapons. Also at the test site were used American anti-tank missile systems Javelin and Ukrainian-made Stugna missile launchers. In the Kherson region, the artillery battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which included the Smerch installations, conducted firing practice. There were also exercises of units of anti-aircraft missile forces.

The Ukrainian military continues to strengthen and modernize its infrastructure on the border with Crimea. At the OleshkovskiePeski training ground, exercises took place according to the scenario of the liberation of the "occupied" territories. The leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the beginning of the full functioning of the Yagorlyk state test site, which is designed to launch missiles capable of hitting targets on the peninsula. This range is planned to be used for testing long-range artillery. In fact, near the border of Crimea, the largest landfill in Ukraine, with an area of ​​about 3.7 thousand hectares, is fully operational.

Practical tests of the new Typhoon-1 ammunition for the Grad MLRS and a new missile for the Tochka-U were carried out at the Alibey test site. The ammunition was developed by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye design bureau. The characteristics of the new models are not specified, but it is reported that the range of targets has increased significantly.

 In addition to developing its own weapons, the Ukrainian regime ordered an Ada-class corvette from Turkey, which is now under construction. It will be equipped with American, European and Turkish weapons: a missile system, an anti-aircraft missile system, artillery installations of various calibers, remotely controlled stabilized machine guns, mine-torpedo weapons. Ukraine will spend 3.4 billion hryvnia on the Turkish corvette.

The Bayraktar drones delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine have successfully passed tests under the influence of electronic warfare equipment. Exercises with their use recently ended at the southern military ranges of Ukraine.

 And the Turkish company confirmed that it intends to build UAV assembly shops in Ukraine, the project provides for one hundred percent investment in the creation of a state-of-the-art research and development center, maintenance and repair shops with accompanying services. Also, a Turkish company initiated the creation of an industrial park and a technology park of defense technologies for joint Ukrainian and Turkish enterprises.

The combined diving unit of Ukrainian naval sailors arrived in Constanta at the military base of the Romanian naval forces to participate in the Dive 2021 multinational exercise, which began with the participation of representatives from Ukraine, the United States, Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia.

The other day in Berdyansk, a station was opened for the naval guard division, created by the United States according to NATO standards. The Americans pay special attention to the Sea of ​​Azov, which they previously could not control in geopolitical terms, but now they have such an opportunity.

Ukraine not only prepares for war, but also calls on the West to openly intervene. SBU General VasilyVovk recently suggested that the United States and Britain seize Crimea and go to war against Russia: “Joint exercises and summits alone are not enough. take this land - that's what will help us. " Ukrainian diplomats, with the support of the United States and Europe, initiated a project of the so-called "Crimean Platform" to return Crimea to Ukraine.

At the same time, the Ukrainian chief diplomat Nikolai Kuleba openly threatened Russia with “stones from the sky”: “The main thing for Crimea was to return to Russia, and there at least“ stones from the sky ” Please, there will be “stones from the sky” for you, there will be a lot of things. We will wait for our time. " These threats and militaristic fervor cannot be underestimated as the hybrid war on the part from Ukraine and NATO is under way.