NATO’s closest unit to the war in Ukraine has been carrying out scheduled military exercises to prepare for a possible invasion.
Based in Romania near Ukraine’s southern border, soldiers held a dress rehearsal for enemy forces advancing from the north.
The NATO battlegroup, which consists of French and Dutch soldiers, was deployed there as a direct result of the Ukraine war.
They are preparing for the war spilling over the border into Romania, even though no one is openly discussing that possibility.
Officials say their exercises are part of “routine”.
“The context is different somehow but the training remains the same,” said Colonel Christophe Degand, Commander of NATO’s Forward Presence Battlegroup in Romania.
“There is this global trend within armed forces to train for a peer-to-peer fight – that was ongoing before the Ukrainian crisis so I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job for picturing what will be the next conflict.
“We are the closest unit deployed to the crisis [in Ukraine] so it has a specific element but I don’t see any big shift within the training.”