Cold Response 2022, the largest military exercise NATO has conducted in the Arctic in the last 30 years, continues on land, in the air and at sea across Norway.
The exercise, which began on March 14, will continue until April 1. Around 30,000 soldiers from 27 countries in Europe and North America are part of it, which is led by Norway, including alliance partners Finland and Sweden.
220 aircraft have been deployed, as well as 50 ships, including two carrier groups from the UK and Italy.
NATO said in a statement that Cold Response is a long-planned exercise, which Norway hosts every two years, adding that the 2022 drill was announced more than eight months ago and is not related to Russia’s war once morest Ukraine. , which began on February 24.
On March 25, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met troops participating in the exercise in northern Norway, saying it showed “the unity and strength of NATO in action.”
Stoltenberg added that the Arctic is a region of strategic importance to NATO and that in recent years there has been a significant increase in Russian military activity in the region.
He stressed that NATO’s presence in the area is not to provoke a conflict, but to prevent it and preserve peace.
He added that Norway had invited the 57 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to observe the exercise, but Russia had rejected that invitation.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has killed at least 1,151 Ukrainian civilians and injured 1,824 more, according to UN estimates, which warns the true figure is likely to be much higher.
More than 3.9 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries and millions more have become internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.
*Ahmet Gencturk and Aicha Sandoval Alaguna contributed to the writing of this note.
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