Russia’s Zapad 2017 large-scale military drills included secretly practicing a full-scale invasion of Europe.
The drills involved tens of thousands of troops and featured artillery, tanks, missile attacks and naval and air force raids.
According to plans that have been revealed, Russian forces practiced invading via northern and southern Finland, through the Baltics, through Belarus into Poland, Sweden and then Germany.
German newspaper Bild reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans were discovered by analysts from two leading intelligence agencies, though the paper did not report which agencies produced the intel.
Before the exercises, Putin claimed they were merely defensive in nature. [source]
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