Participation in Aurora 26 drills gives Kiev legal status as NATO proxy — expert

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. Ukraine’s participation in the Aurora 26 exercise in Sweden gives the Kiev regime legal status as a NATO proxy and allows the West to directly participate in the conflict on Russian territory, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), told TASS. "Ukraine’s official inclusion in the multinational contingent of the exercise indicates that these proxies are de facto granted legal status and are provided with the full military-technical and intelligence capabilities of the regional Joint Expeditionary Force, which is designed to ensure the long-term military presence of the North Atlantic Alliance," the expert noted. According to him, the role of Great Britain with its regional defense project, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), is particularly noticeable in this context. Stepanov emphasized that this project is not so much defensive as offensive in nature, especially in the Arctic. The expert noted that the exercise participants are practicing the use of unmanned systems in the challenging climatic conditions of the Arctic and Baltic. "This suggests that not only is the geography of the potential use of the Kiev regime’s forces expanding, but also that the expertise gained from combat use is being shared with other participants in the multinational exercise," Stepanov noted. According to him, the goal of these drills is to expand Ukraine’s sabotage and terrorist experience to the Baltic, Northern European, and Arctic regions. "Under the banner of the Kiev regime’s forces, Westerners are preparing massive sabotage operations both on maritime communications and through the implementation of ‘deep strike’ tactics using drones against energy and logistics infrastructure," the expert warned. The Aurora 26 military exercise took place from April 27 to May 13 in Sweden, including on the island of Gotland, a key outpost on NATO's eastern flank, allowing control of sea and air routes in the Baltic Sea. A total of around 18,000 troops from Sweden, 11 NATO allies (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia), and Ukraine participated in the maneuvers. The goal of the exercise was to "practice an operation to reinforce Swedish and allied territory in a deteriorating security situation."