“I think we would have won by a fair margin,” argued the lieutenant colonel.  Jesse van Eijk, head of the Enhanced Forward Presence Latvia battle group, said in an interview on Wednesday.
	The threat is ongoing in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and on Tuesday tensions rose when a missile attack killed two people in Poland, another NATO member.  There were initially fears that the missile was fired from Russia, but Poland said on Wednesday that it was likely fired from air defenses in neighboring Ukraine.
	Van Eijk spoke to The Canadian Press in his modest office in a temporary building at Camp Adazi, the battle group’s base in the middle of a forest about a 45-minute drive from Riga, the Latvian capital.
	The small country was part of the Russian Empire and then the USSR, and had to gain independence twice, most recently in 1991.
	Just over 1,200 soldiers from 10 countries, including 700 from Canada, are training at Camp Adazi as a unified battle group defending Latvia.  Van Eijk is convinced that his troops are better prepared and more experienced than their potential opponents.
	“The expectation of it is changing,” he said, referring to the vision of Russia’s military as one of the most imposing and best-equipped in the world.
	“There was an initial impression that the Russians would be quicker and they hadn’t delivered based on what they … sent a message that they could do in Ukraine,” he said.  “So the pace of this operation, if it’s going to happen, really depends on what the Russians are going to throw at us.”
	The commander said the soldiers under his command all had to undergo rigorous national training and worked hard to integrate into the battle group.  They are professional soldiers, he added, and their understanding of tactics and the best use of resources is superior to that of a Russian soldier.
	Van Eijk, who has been stationed in Latvia for five months, says NATO has accurate information about Russian forces on the other side of the Latvian border — located just 200 kilometers from the Adazi camp — including their state of readiness and even and their daily activities.
	He says Russia’s war in Ukraine has lowered the threat level in Latvia.  “The amount of resources that the Russians have now invested in Ukraine, and that they are losing in Ukraine, reduces their ability to do something in that theater quickly,” he said.  The Latvian military came to the same conclusion, noting a weakening of Russian land bases of the Russian military in the region — in Pskov, for example.
	The Russians, however, remain a threat, van Eijk said.  “What they’re going to do in the future is really in the hands of President (Vladimir) Putin, I think, but the threat is very real,” he said.
	The NATO battlegroup, known as eFP Latvia, serves as both a deterrent and a shield in the event of an attack.  It’s bigger than a regular Canadian battle group, “getting pretty big,” said its commander, and has all the equipment it needs.
	On Wednesday, soldiers from several countries, including Italy, Germany and Spain, were training in a huge stretch of Latvian forest.  The sound of heavy artillery could be heard sporadically, and in the distance observers with binoculars watched from a shelter.
	Other soldiers were in a tent practicing to identify targets – Russian combat vehicles – and describe their characteristics within a minute.
	Latvia’s eFP had conducted four training exercises in three months involving the entire battle group, an effort van Eijk described as “phenomenal”.  Soldiers rotate in and out every six months so they don’t get tired, he said.
	He acknowledged that managing a multinational team is a challenge, but said it is ultimately a “human thing” to make sure everyone understands his intent.
	The British Columbia native was previously deployed to Afghanistan and has spent the majority of his career with the 1st Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Man Silo.  Asked what he misses most about Canada, he replied: “Being home.”
	That will happen soon, as he is due to return home in December when his deployment to Latvia ends.
	This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 17, 2022.
	— Patrice Bergeron is a Quebec-based journalist with The Canadian Press.  In addition to two decades of political and general news experience, he was a KP war correspondent in Afghanistan in 2009.