Europe preparing for defense without NATO and will test bloc's readiness for major war - Bloomberg

Brussels is preparing to conduct large-scale simulations of the activation of Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty, which provides for mandatory military assistance in the event of an attack on one of the bloc's members. The exercises will simulate the decision-making process in a situation where a member state becomes a victim of aggression and asks its partners for military support. It was reported by Bloomberg with reference to a senior EU official.

This initiative has become particularly relevant due to tensions within NATO and the US threats to withdraw from the Alliance. The upcoming exercises will be the main topic of an informal summit of EU leaders to be held next week in Cyprus. In this way, Europe is trying to develop autonomous security mechanisms without relying solely on Washington, which is currently postponing arms supplies to the EU because of the war with Iran.

It is noteworthy that the EU legislation in this matter is formulated even more strictly than the well-known NATO Article 5. While the Alliance Charter obliges members to take only those actions that they "deem necessary," Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty explicitly requires states to provide assistance "by all possible means."

At the same time, experts note that the main challenge for Brussels remains the lack of a powerful military structure capable of implementing these legal obligations without using NATO resources.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Supreme Commander and Chief of Defense of the Swedish Armed Forces Michael Claesson suggested that russia could conduct a limited naval operation to test NATO's vulnerabilities.

It was also reported that Trump plans to withdraw US troops from Germany and Spain because of their refusal to support the war in Iran.

The State Duma of the aggressor country, russia, also passed in the first reading a bill that expands the list of grounds for military intervention. This document will allow dictator vladimir putin to send troops to other countries, allegedly to "protect russians" who are being persecuted by foreign courts or tribunals.

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