Monthly Archives: April 2015

As Russian actions across eastern Europe alarmed countries last year, NATO officials at a summit in Wales decided to take a new step: Forming a new military force designed to respond swiftly in the face of threats.

The Very High Readiness Joint Task Force will include about 5,000 troops primarily from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, with maritime, special operations and aviation units. Its meant to give the rest of the 30,000 service members in NATOs response force time to mobilize.

The high-readiness force will take a major step this month with part one of Operation Noble Jump. Running from April 1 to April 10, the exercise includes missions in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, and marks the first time that the forces will practice rapid orders to move, NATO officials said.

NATO released this video Thursday to help explain it:

Another part of Noble Jump will occur from June 9 to June 20 at the Zagan Military Training Area in Poland, officials said. It will be followed by Trident Juncture 2015, a military exercise in Italy, Spain and Portugal from Oct. 21 to Nov. 6.

U.S. troops have trained with the NATO Response Force, established in 2003, for years. In Latvia, for example, U.S. Marines joined troops from Lithuania, Luxembourg, Canada and Germany last month as part of a five-day training assignment. The Marines were part of the Black Sea Rotational Force, which cycles through the Baltic region regularly for training assignments on Russias western flank.

Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the commander of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander of NATO operations, has said repeatedly that the whole NATO Response Force needs to be ready. He said at a forum in Brussels last month that NATO isnt just establishing the high-readiness task force, but also working to speed up how the rest of the response force moves.

Breedlove told the House Armed Services Committee in February that Europe will be the primary contributor of land forces for the high-readiness task force, but the United States must contribute some troops to help with cohesiveness.

Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.

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Meet NATOs new rapid-reaction task force, now in initial training

Baz Ratner / ReutersVolunteers of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republican guard fire their weapons during shooting training in Donetsk.

MONS, Belgium NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that Russia was still arming and training rebel forces in eastern Ukraine and he called for the warring parties to help foreign monitors to reinforce a cease-fire.

Asked at a news conference about a U.S. diplomat's remark that Russian tanks had crossed into Ukraine in recent days, he declined specific comment but said: "We still see Russian presence and strong support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine. We see the delivery of equipment, forces, training. And so Russia is still in eastern Ukraine.

"Therefore we call on Russia to withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine and to respect the Minsk agreement."

On Tuesday, senior State Department official Victoria Nuland told a U.S. congressional hearing that Russian tanks and artillery had crossed into eastern Ukraine in recent days in breach of a cease-fire deal agreed in Minsk on Feb. 12.

Stoltenberg and the top NATO commander, U.S. General Philip Breedlove, told reporters at the alliance's military headquarters in Belgium that their priority now in Ukraine was to see monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe given the safe and free access and comprehensive information they needed to reinforce the truce.

Breedlove said NATO could not say if numbers of combatants and weaponry had changed from estimates before the cease-fire because of the difficulties of monitoring movements. It was positive that men and equipment had moved back from front lines, he said. "But we're not sure where they've been moved."

Ukraine's government says rebels have been concentrating armaments in depots near the main eastern city of Donetsk.

Stoltenberg said he was concerned that weaponry which was not being monitored could be repositioned for future combat.

"Our main message today is that the OSCE needs access," he said. "What we ask for is both freedom of movement but also that they get access to necessary information The monitoring of cease-fire is by no means sufficient today."

Originally posted here:
NATO Says Russia Continues to Arm Ukraine Separatists