Ukraine joins NATO Article 5 exercises for the first time

Representatives of the Joint NATO–Ukraine Analysis, Training and Education Center (JATEC) took part in the final phase of the NATO Loyal Dolos 2025 exercise, which assessed the combat capabilities of an Alliance unit, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

According to the press service, lessons learned from Russia’s war against Ukraine were integrated into the exercise scenario to prepare troops for operations in rapidly changing combat environments. Ukrainian experts were directly involved in NATO exercises of this type for the first time.

The General Staff said Ukraine’s participation in Loyal Dolos 2025, one of NATO’s key training elements aligned with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, is of strategic importance, as it marked the first time Ukraine helped practice the Alliance’s collective security mechanisms.

The participation is expected to contribute to recognition by the North Atlantic Council of Ukraine as one of the most experienced contributors to regional security. NATO also underscored the importance of cooperation with Ukraine’s security and defense forces, said Colonel Valerii Vyshnivskyi, Ukraine’s senior national representative to JATEC and director for program implementation at the Joint NATO–Ukraine Center.

The General Staff added that about 1,500 military personnel and civilian experts across multiple locations in Europe worked together to evaluate the capabilities of one of NATO’s rapid deployment corps as an Alliance combat unit.

An exercise control group based at the Joint Force Training Centre ensured a comprehensive and realistic format. Loyal Dolos 2025 was designed to refine and test NATO’s ability to operate cohesively across multiple domains simultaneously.

The General Staff also said the drills were the flagship event of NATO’s training program this year, focusing on land operations with integrated multi-domain elements, in line with NATO’s strategy to build more interconnected and adaptive forces.

Earlier, the United States developed a draft set of security guarantees for Ukraine under a proposed "peace plan," structured around the logic of NATO’s Article 5, which oversees a collective Western response to any potential renewed Russian attack.

NATO Article 5 enshrines the principle of collective defense, under which an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all.

Key points:

• Triggered in the event of armed aggression against a NATO member state;

• Each country determines the form of assistance, from political and economic to military;

• Does not mandate automatic troop deployment, but obliges a response;

• Forms the cornerstone of NATO deterrence and security.

Article 5 has been formally invoked only once, after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.