and melina verba, who apparently didn't get the memo, and said at a council of europe meeting recently, that the e u was at war with russia. but the french military is nonetheless now holding a massive military exercise, the largest in 30 years. it's called orion 23, so a ryan 2023. and it was decided back in 2020. in preparation for what it's commander nikolai didn't know describes as quote, the return of big operations on french soil. orion 23 main objectives refocused training on armies on modern conflicts. in particular, high intensity evaluate internal command capabilities for large scale operation. so this exercise comes after years of france focusing primarily on counterterrorism and counter insurgency. seems like a really strange thing to have figured necessary way back in 2020 to have french soldiers storming the beaches of the south of france. 7000 francs soldiers are involved in these maneuvers and they last until march. they started just a few days ago. it's get increasingly difficult to hear western officials paying lip service to peace. under all this belligerent talk and