The Russian Defense Ministry announced yesterday that the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet has begun an exercise called Ocean Shield-2023 that will include live fire drills and which will be under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov. The exercise “is planned to test the readiness of naval forces to defend the national interests of the Russian Federation in an operationally important area and the coherence of the work of headquarters at various levels in managing forces,” the statement said.
“During the exercise, measures will be practiced to protect sea communications, the transport of troops and military cargo and the defense of the sea coast. It is planned to carry out more than 200 combat exercises, including practical use of weapons,” the statement said. “Over 30 warships and boats, 20 support vessels, 30 aircraft of the Naval Aviation and the Russian Aerospace Forces and about 6,000 servicemen are involved in the exercise.”
The Associated Press took notice of the exercise, but since it had nothing useful to say about it, AP simply declared that the exercise is “ratcheting up tensions with nearby European nations that are already high over NATO and Ukraine.” It’s as if turning the Baltic Sea into a NATO lake with the accession of Finland weren’t already ratcheting up tensions.
