As Ukraine struggles on the real battlefield, the war games on what could be the front line if that conflict bubbles over have added significance. If any NATO members come under attack, the message is clear and united: there will be no playing games.
In a dusty clearing in Lithuania, NATO is rolling out the big guns. Leopard 2 tanks fire their rounds with a deafening thud, while Puma fighting vehicles add to the eerie chorus, accompanied by the buzz of helicopter blades. The firepower on display is the crescendo of the alliance's biggest military training exercise since the Cold War, led by the Germans and taking place a few miles from the Lithuanian border with Belarus.
Last time, he was a student battling the Soviet Union for his country's independence. 'I remember perfectly the system that we lived in. I don't want those times to come back and I don't want my children to live in such a country as the Soviet Union,' he said. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also shocked Germany into action. This is the first year since the 1990s that the European giant has met the NATO alliance target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence.
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