©Sofya Sandurskaya/TASS
Russia will find a way to curtail threats to its national security in connection with NATO’s increased military presence near its borders, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing in relation to the upcoming Nordic Response drills under the auspices of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on March 3-14.
"Our country will not leave the bolstering of NATO’s military potential near its borders without a response, it will take relevant defense measures in order to curtail threats to its national security," she noted.
The diplomat highlighted the fact that over 20,000 troops from various branches of service from 14 countries will participate in the drills which will take place in the northern parts of Norway, Finland and Sweden. "This new round of militarist activity is fraught with the additional escalation of tensions in the Euro-Arctic region," Zakharova stressed.
Russia Considers Finland's Border Closure as Step Towards Breaking Ties
Moscow sees Helsinki's move to close the border with Russia as a step towards a complete severance of relations between the two countries, Russian Ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov told Sputnik.
"We see Helsinki's decision to close the border as another step in a long chain of actions by the Finnish authorities aimed at a complete severance of relations with Russia," Kuznetsov said.
Finland does not take into account the rights and interests of both Finnish and Russian citizens, he added.
"However, statements by Finnish Interior Ministry representatives inspire some optimism that various options are being studied that would allow for the resumption of movement across the border. We hope that these declarations will lead to concrete actions. We expect that the opening of the border will also contribute to the ongoing dialogue between the border services of our countries," the ambassador said.
Finland started temporarily closing checkpoints on its border with Russia in early November 2023, citing an influx of undocumented migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. Helsinki later announced that the border would remain closed until February 11. The Finnish government is expected to extend the border closure on Thursday.
NATO Prepares to Move East, as Russia Prepares to Move West
The first phase of NATO's Steadfast Defender military exercise got underway last week with a bit of a fiasco, when the UK's $4.4 billion flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was sidelined by propeller shaft problems before it could even make it out of port.
The Queen Elizabeth was scheduled to take a leading role in Steadfast Defender, and will now be replaced by the UK's other (yes, they only have 2) carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, which itself broke down with propeller shaft problems in August 2022, only making it as far as the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, just a few miles from its home port of Portsmouth before having to be towed back to port for repairs that required almost a year before the Prince was again deemed sea-worthy.
If the Queen requires similar repairs to those the Prince underwent, HMS Queen Elizabeth and her arsenal of up to 36 F-35's and 4 helicopters will be unable to participate in the Steadfast Defender exercise nor in any other seagoing operations until this time next year.
This timeline is, as the Brits often say, "Highly likely". The Queen is, as of now, unable to fulfill her duty in Steadfast Defender, as well as any upcoming Red Sea military operations, so, The Prince will have to take up the duty, barring any recurring problems with the Prince's own shaft, which if they occurred, would leave the entire UK carrier fleet under repair for the "biggest NATO exercise since the Cold War" and at a time of significant and escalation naval combat operations in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. A rather inauspicious beginning to the NATO exercise and the kingdom that once "ruled the waves".
While the primarily naval/logistical part of the operation will continue from now until mid-March, the land warfare phase will last from mid-March through the end of May using 90,000 NATO troops from and in the following NATO nations: Finland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK.
The movement of 90,000 NATO soldiers into the areas bordering Russia and Ukraine is also a prime opportunity to continue the importation of thousands of foreign mercenaries into the depleted ranks of Ukrainian cannon fodder. There are two separate variants foreign mercenaries in Ukraine these days - on the one hand, you have the Tik Tok Tourists, here only for the photo ops and bargain brothels, the low budget assassins from the narco-cartels in Central and South America, here to make gun, drug, and human trafficking connections, cheap and expendable, ideal candidates for suicide missions, who don't have to even be buried, much less paid.
On the other hand, you have field grade NATO officers, highly trained weapons technicians and special forces "operators" from the elite units of the NATO militaries.
Steadfast Defender is an opportunity to give these expert torturers and killers, these trained terrorists, a free ticket to Ukraine, with all their gear.
Meanwhile, the Russian Army continues to advance all across the Donbass Front, particularly in the area of Kupyansk, where Ukrainian media have been spreading rumors in recent days of 40,000 Russian soldiers and 1,100 tanks and IFV's.
There is little to no evidence of such a massive build-up, and competent analysts have floated a theory that these announcements are really a cover excuse for a forthcoming retreat by Ukrainian forces to the western side of the Oskol River, which runs through the middle of Kupyansk. Either way, another significant Ukrainian retreat appears likely in the short term.
The recent horrific massacres of civilians in the Tekstilshchik market of Donetsk, and the HIMARS bombing of the bakery in Lisichansk are both indicative of Ukrainian desperation and their abject evil. Ukraine and NATO cannot win this war with conventional weapons, and they know it. The world knows it. But these kinds of crimes will continue for as long as the criminal regimes of the West continue to supply high-power long-range weapons to mass murderers and war criminals, or until, (not "if", but "when") Russia delivers a decisive defeat to the Ukrainian Nazis and their foreign masters.
The same applies equally to the Israeli regime and their henchmen attacking Palestine and Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. And beyond. The looming question of the next few months will be whether Russia, along with the Axis of Resistance and our other allies around the world can deliver this finishing blow without our enemies resorting to unconventional NBC weapons, and truly starting World War 3, by forcing us to do the same. It will be a very dangerous Summer - in Ukraine and Europe, the Red Sea and the Middle East. Good luck to all good people. May God bless and protect the innocent and those who defend them. And may the rest of us get everything we deserve.
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