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The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.

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ISW: Russia conducting information operation to distort NATO’s 'Steadfast Defender 2024' exercises

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ISW: Russia conducting information operation to distort NATO’s 'Steadfast Defender 2024' exercises
Dutch Air Force F-16 fighter jets take part in a NATO exercise as part of the NATO Air Policing mission on July 4, 2023. (John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

As NATO gears up for the Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises, Russia has been engaged in an information campaign seeking to cast NATO's actions as provocative, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest update on Jan. 19.

NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises are commencing next week and are scheduled to run until May 2024. General Chris Cavoli, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, revealed that the exercises involve a substantial force, with 90,000 personnel from all 31 NATO member states and Sweden participating.

The exercises will reportedly include over 50 ships; over 80 fighter jets, helicopters, and drones; and at least 1,100 combat vehicles, including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles.

The Russian Foreign Ministry contends that NATO's exercises are increasingly aggressive and provocatively conducted near Russia's borders, characterizing them as a "demonstration of force" on Russia's doorstep. The Kremlin's rhetoric and behavior have recently escalated, with President Vladimir Putin identifying the West as Russia's "enemy" and implying that Russia's actions in Ukraine are aimed at defeating the West.

"The Russian information operation aimed at painting defensive NATO actions in response to real Russian aggression on NATO’s eastern flank as provocative seeks to deflect from recent aggressive Russian rhetoric and behavior towards NATO," the ISW said.

ISW assesses that Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 not to defend Russia against a nonexistent threat from NATO but rather "to weaken and ultimately destroy NATO – a goal he still pursues."

Ukrainians criticize historic UK security agreement as weak, but encouraging
A new bilateral security agreement between Kyiv and London is getting mixed grades in Ukraine. Signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Jan. 12, the 16-page document spells out both countries’ intentions to work together on strengthening Ukraine’s military, defe…
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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