Direct conflict with Russia, the army is getting ready?

Direct conflict with Russia, the army is getting ready?

The 10-day Northern Strike 23 military exercises at Camp Grayling in Michigan come as President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has raised the possibility that high tensions between Moscow and the West will spill over into the Arctic region.

During a visit to the site of the exercises, which took place between January 20 and 29, the Military Times reported that US Army General Dan Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, watched a practice firing the M777 howitzer, one of the NATO weapons used by Ukrainian forces.

Field artillery was the focus of exercises involving troops from Latvia, a Baltic state that is also closely monitoring the threat posed by Russia.

Malte Humpert, a Senior Fellow and Founder of "The Arctic Institute", said that the exercises of the US military reserve forces "symbolize that the US is really making more and more progress" when it comes to the Arctic region.

"It's not preparing for World War III," he told Newsweek. "It is just another step, which shows that the US understands that Russia is a hostile nation and that this hostility can potentially extend to the Arctic, which has always been considered a region of exceptionalism."

NATO allies such as Norway and potential new members of the alliance, Sweden and Finland, would count on the support of the US if there was a confrontation in the region.

"We have to be able to go wherever that potential fight is, and we have to provide a presence there," Hokanson told The Military Times.

Two weeks after Putin invaded Ukraine, members of the Arctic Council decided to suspend participation in the body, ending cooperation with Russia and its neighbors in the region.

Even as it focuses on resupplying its war effort, Russia has continued to expand its military bases in the Arctic over the past year while improving radar bases and airstrips in the region, CNN reported in December, citing satellite images.

Meanwhile, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report published in January that Moscow's use of hybrid tactics in the Arctic "appears to be increasing in both frequency and severity."

This includes allegations that Moscow has denied that it was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and submarine cables in the Arctic and near the Arctic.