Belgium to Provide NATO Reinforcements and First Multinational Ammo Warehouse Opens up in Estonia

Recently, NATO has decided to reinforce its eastern flank. In addition to the four battlegroups already stationed in Poland and the Baltic States, four new battlegroups are now being added. The four new NATO battlegroups will be stationed in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary. With these additional reinforcements, roughly 25,000 NATO soldiers will be present in Eastern Europe. The countries themselves provide about 290,000 soldiers. On land, the reinforcements serve mainly as deterrence for Russia, to show the Russians that invading any of these countries will have massive consequences.

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Romania Increases its Military Budget: “Security Starts at Home”

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many European NATO Member States have announced their plans to significantly increase their defence spending. In line with this trend, on 1 March 2022, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis officially announced his government’s intention to increase the defence capacity of the Romanian State from the current 2% of the national GDP to 2.5%.

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NATO Activates Response Force For The First Time

Recently, NATO activated the Alliance’s Response Force (NRF) for collective defence and deterrence for the first time. This measure comes as a response to “Russia’s massive military build-up” says NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. As Russia pushes deeper into Ukraine, units of the NRF, led by France, have already arrived in Romania and remain on high alert.

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Battling Moral Injuries

Servicemen and women in land forces around the world often confront a number of duty-related mental, emotional, and physical hardships. War can inflict many different manifestations of ethical and psychological distress, which fall under the umbrella of ‘moral injury’. Moral Injuries (MI) were first discussed in relation to military personnel transgressing moral beliefs and values during war, but it has since expanded to include equivalent emotional experience by healthcare professionals, first responders, rescue workers, and everyone facing similar complex emotions as a result of actions taken or observations made throughout traumatic circumstances. While moral injury and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been seen to share several symptoms, military, soldiers, clinical psychologists, as well as chaplains are concerned about PTSD’s incapability to account for the substance of moral and ethical distress that battlefields may generate. Modern warfare produces new challenges to the personnel. With the advent of new technologies and the use of drones, the author of a particular action does not directly see the consequences of what he/she has done. This may cause different types of moral injuries since the handler will take longer before realising the magnitude of his gesture.

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New Danish – U.S. Defence Cooperation Underway

Denmark and the United States have begun talks about a new bilateral defence agreement. The agreement might include American troops on Danish soil, as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced at a news conference on 10 February 2022.

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