Russian and Belarusian tanks, jets, artillery, and infantry have begun surging toward EU borders in a massive war game that is taking place amid real Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria.
Called Zapad 2017, the two-week drill is meant to repel an attack by a fictional state, Veishnoriya, and two fictional allies, Lubeniya and Vesbasriya, that look a bit like Nato and EU countries Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, which currently host around 4,000 Nato troops.
According t...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.