The Operational Command East with the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) provocatively announced Saturday that it will hold joint military exercises known as “Exercise Cossack Mace” with NATO forces later this year. The statement comes as violence continues to escalate between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region of the country.
The corresponding statement was published on the Facebook page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The exercise is scheduled for May-June 2021. The report specified that more than a thousand servicemen will take part in the military exercises. The last negotiations on the exercise took place in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
Representatives of the General Staff noted that five states that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will take part in the joint military exercises. Besides, the participants of the Partnership for Peace program will be also involved.
While joint Ukrainian-NATO drills are often announced with clarifying statements that they are purely “defensive” operations, the AFU’s statement differed in that it made clear that it would simulate an offensive attack. The statement says that the headquarters and units of the multinational brigade are supposed to train how to respond to a large-scale offensive of the armed forces of the conditional aggressor country.
“In particular, defensive actions will be worked out, followed by an offensive to restore the state border and territorial integrity of a state that has been subjected to aggression by one of the hostile neighboring countries,” the statement said, clearly referring to the Russian Federation.
During the exercises to be held in Ukraine, the servicemen will focus on defence with the subsequent transition to the attack. The representative of Ukraine Alexey Arestovich said that one of the goals of the future exercises is to carefully study the scenario of war with the Russian Federation.
Saturday’s statement was followed up on Sunday with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ominously posting a video to its Facebook page, celebrating the 72nd anniversary of NATO, along with the hashtag #WeAreNATO.