Ukraine has been executing some of its largest military exercises since Sept. 19, together with its Western military partners, namely the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
Titled Joint Endeavor 2020, the massive maneuvers are being carried out in all of the principal domains of modern warfare — air, ground and sea. The exercises also include most of the key components and branches of military power, such as armored and mechanized infantry forces, combat and transport aircraft, airborne forces, special operations troops, missile artillery, and navy.
The exercises were launched with an impressive debut of the British army airborne forces in the sky over southern Ukraine, during which nearly 250 paratroopers of the 16th Air Assault Brigade performed a mass airdrop together with their Ukrainian counterparts.
U.K.’s media called this exercise the British army’s biggest airdrop in nearly 20 years.
The maneuvers, which take place all across the nation, continue with the participation of American and Canadian officers who are directly involved in the command and control over Ukrainian armored forces.
According to the Ukrainian command, the key goal behind these exercises is to polish interoperability between Western and Ukrainian forces, which seek full adoption of NATO regulations in the nearest future.
Notably, the Ukrainian maneuvers are taking place simultaneously with Russia’s Kavkaz 2020 military exercises, during which Moscow has been engaging 80,000 troops in southern Russia as well in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.
The major Russian maneuvers seriously increased tensions in the region, having the U.S. and the U.K. respond with launching at least two observation missions to the Black Sea region and amplifying their military presence just weeks or days before the start.
According to Ukraine’s military, the ongoing Western-Ukrainian drills are nothing but a reaction to Russia’s increasingly aggressive activity in the region.
