(ANSA) - Brussels, September 2 - A NATO exercise involving nine countries including Italy started Tuesday in Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries of Estonia and Lithuania.
    The large-scale multinational exercise named Steadfast Javelin II aimed at reassuring eastern European countries will end next Monday, NATO sources said. It involves hundreds of vehicles, aircraft, and forces from nine different countries including the Canada, Italy and the United States, NATO command sources said.
    The exercise "is designed to show NATO's commitment to...safeguarding the freedom and security of its members and partners," the sources said.
    It is the first of a series of exercises to take place throughout September, including a 12-nation exercise in Ukraine from September 13-20 code-named Rapid Trident.
    All the exercises were scheduled long before Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in the spring, but they have been expanded since, the sources said.