Lithuania holds its largest military drills with NATO allies

Lithuania is staging its largest ever military training manoeuvres alongside NATO allies.

The two week Iron Wolf exercise lasts until Sunday (October 30) and involves more than 3,500 troops from the Lithuanian Army’s Iron Wolf Brigade and eight other NATO countries.

Belgian Piranha and Lithuanian Vilkas infantry fighting vehicles along with German Leopard 2 tanks took part in the war games.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been calling for their region to receive the biggest build-up of combat-ready NATO forces in Europe since the end of the Cold War.

But NATO countries were not willing to commit to permanent bases in the Baltics, as it would cost billions of dollars and be hard to sustain. The states may not have enough troops and weaponry, and a permanent presence would be highly provocative for Moscow.

Instead, NATO chose to assign thousands of troops on standby in countries further west like Germany as rapid reinforcements.

"We have the possibility to see how our NATO troops are united for the same task, to be prepared to defend NATO area, or defend NATO states as Lithuania, and Lithuanians, we feel really protected because the allies are deployed on Lithuanian soil,” Lithuanian Chief of Defence, general Valdemaras Rupsys said.

Germany deployed its first troops to NATO member Lithuania, on the border of Russia, in 2017 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. It agreed to ramp up the mission significantly in June in response to Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

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