NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 May be Used as Cover for Giving More Arms to Ukraine – Expert

NATO has kicked off Steadfast Defender 2024, the alliance's largest exercise in decades involving approximately 90,000 forces from 31 allies and Sweden. Could it be used to provide further military assistance to Ukraine?

On Wednesday, the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) departed Naval Station Norfolk to participate in NATO's large-scale Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises which will continue until May 31, 2024 and will take part from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe.

According to the alliance's website, the drills are aimed at showing NATO's ability to "deploy forces rapidly from North America and other parts of the Alliance to reinforce the defense of Europe."

Serbian military expert Edin Subasic has suggested that "the drills could also become a cover for the delivery of new strategic assistance to Ukraine: the military equipment involved could subsequently remain with Kiev."

Vasily Dandykin, a captain 1st rank reserve and military expert, does not rule this possibility out.

"This is not a problem because Poland is nearby," Dandykin told Sputnik, referring to the fact that Poland has been used as a logistic hub for weapons deliveries to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. "And then, why do they need to cover this up?"

The expert pointed out that the US military routinely stockpiles weapons necessary for the drills at their base in Germany to save both time and money.

"Therefore, the question is how it will happen, who will use this [military] equipment, and what they will do. I think that such an option [to provide extra weapons to Ukraine under the guise of the military drills – Sputnik] may not be excluded," Dandykin suggested.

The expert said some of the weapons could be transferred to Ukraine via Germany and Poland. However, European powers have already depleted their weapons stockpiles and they are seeking to replenish them in the first place, he added. Although orders for new arms and ammunition have already been placed, the production will take time. Given that tensions are growing about giving away any new military equipment to Kiev, according to the expert.

In addition, the largest ever military drills could also be used to try to draw some Russian forces away from the zone of the special military operation, per Dandykin. Presently, the Russian military are steadily continuing to improve their strategic positions along the entire front line. "Things are pretty bad now [for the Ukrainian military] there," he concluded.