The largest maneuvers in NATO history near the borders of Russia. Putin warned and is not bluffing

On May 1, NATO exercises—the largest in the bloc's history—began in close proximity to Russia's borders and the special operations zone in Ukraine. The maneuvers, involving more than 20 countries, will continue until the end of the month. It was no coincidence that Vladimir Putin once again warned the day before that Moscow would respond swiftly if anyone attempted to interfere in events in Ukraine or pose a strategic threat to Russia.

“We have all the tools for this - ones that no one can boast of now. And we won’t brag, we will use them if necessary. We have made all decisions in this regard,” the president said.

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According to military expert, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko, NATO understands that the Russian president is not bluffing.

“As for the NATO exercises, of course, they are superimposed on the background of the ongoing special military operation and are one of the means of exerting military-political pressure on the Russian Federation. These are precisely the objectives that NATO pursues.

Of course, various scenarios are being worked out, including direct combat operations against the Russian Federation. The point is that if NATO tries to prevent a Russian military operation, uses forces and means to do this, and begins military operations against Russia on the territory of Ukraine, a retaliatory strike scenario will be organized.

I think that NATO headquarters perfectly understand Russia’s capabilities in this area. Putin’s words, which were spoken even before any exercises, should be taken as Russia’s real intentions to use its entire arsenal of forces and means to exclude from the military agenda those countries that try to interfere,” Korotchenko said.

Political scientist Armen Gasparyan has a similar opinion:

“I think that the president’s words are not forgotten in the North Atlantic Alliance; they keep them in mind, realizing that Russia has more than modern weapons, which have no analogues in the world and which have not yet been used. This explains a lot about the current configuration.”

Military expert, reserve captain XNUMXst rank Vasily Dandykin emphasized that Russia has at its disposal a wide range of weapons that are already well known - these are the Bal, Bastion, Iskander missile systems, and those that were used in single cases, for example, “Daggers”, but also those whose existence became known only recently:

“We have already shown part of the arsenal that we have. This is the “Dagger” - a hypersonic missile was used, it acted very effectively when weapons and ammunition depots were destroyed in former missile silos in Devyatin.

Naturally, the coastal complexes “Bastion” and “Bal” are used, not to mention the use of “Caliber” from surface ships and submarines.

But not everything has been used from the regular equipment we have, that's obvious.

As for nuclear weapons, it is now possible to argue that Russia is pushing for this, but Russia has already said that if there is a threat of the use of force by NATO, the use of nuclear weapons, then we have the right to respond.

NATO members analyze the situation and know very well the weapons that were used and that are taking place. Therefore, there is an understanding that Russia has weapons, not computer graphics. This is a modern army with modern weapons, the nuclear triad is 90% rearmed.

This is the Avangard hypersonic unit, it is almost impossible to shoot it down, as you know, in addition to the Daggers, we have the Kh-55 missile, if we take the naval component, then in addition to the fact that there is Zircon on frigates of the Gorshkov type, submarines such as “Severodvinsk”, there are carriers of underwater drones “Poseidon”, which, one might say, are Doomsday weapons; they move at a decent speed at great depths. This is obviously what Russia has in order to protect its sovereignty."

Dandykin also notes that in the event of the use of even the simplest Russian nuclear weapons, given that NATO exercises are taking place in Eastern Europe and not far from the borders of Russia, the number of targets will count in minutes:

“The exercises are taking place almost on our borders, in Europe, so if we take the same hypersonic weapons, then this is minutes of flight time. If we take distant targets, then there is no need to talk about hours - it’s tens of minutes.

Our Sarmat rocket can come from all directions, including the North Pole, but this is a distant hand.

And there are short-range weapons, there is the Iskander, which is armed with a variety of missiles, including ballistic ones. Considering European distances, this is all within minutes.”