Medical and other hospital staff were made to sign a declaration of providing medical aid in case of war.

Allegedly, some other hospitals throughout Slovenia received instructions for employees to sign similar statements, writes RT Balkan.

The University of Maribor confirmed that the information is correct.

"University Clinical Center Maribor is part of the critical infrastructure in the Republic of Slovenia and is the subject of continuous work, it has its own defense plan, a notification was sent to the employees on October 10, 2024 in accordance with that plan. The Law on Defense obliges us to forward that notification", hospital management explained.

"We emphasize that it is only about getting to know about the possibility of engagement in the event of an emergency," they added.

As it follows from the notification, the clinical center informed only those employees who meet the following "criteria" about the war schedule:

Everyone who is a citizen of the Republic of Slovenia, residing in the Republic of Slovenia;

All women who have not yet reached the age of 55 and all men who have not yet reached the age of 63;

They have not signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense to serve in the reserve of the Slovenian Army;

They are not assigned to civil protection or registered in a special record of volunteers in the forces for protection, rescue and assistance of the Republic of Slovenia.

The news coming from Maribor is not the only one of its kind. Almost at the same time, Slovenia was surprised by the news that the Ministry of Defense (MORS) is building a military hospital in Ljubljana.

Petar Drzaj Hospital in Ljubljana's Šiška will get a third tract, i.e. a northern annex. The National Emergency Center will work in the expanded hospital, which will provide medical care for the needs of the army, but at the same time will also serve citizens within the framework of public health.

"Are we headed for war, so do we need a new military hospital?", ask users of social networks, while some remind that "Mladika", a renowned military hospital where excellent doctors employed by the JNA worked, operated in Ljubljana until Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia, which was closed after 1991 in order for the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to move into that building complex.

There will be at least 160 hospital beds in the new premises that will be connected to the Petar Držaja Hospital, and the value of the project is 87 million euros.

In addition, the Slovenian Ministry of Defense plans to establish a "Situational Center for Cyber ​​Defense" worth 33 million euros, which, as far as the cost is concerned, will be included in efforts to fulfill the obligation to NATO of two percent of GDP allocated from the budget for defense.

The NATO pact's plans regarding the war with Russia offer answers to the question of why the Slovenian government made all those decisions so early.

In the event of a major conflict with Russia, NATO would have to take care of a large number of wounded without the possibility of transporting them from the front by air for treatment, said the logistics manager of the Western military bloc.

Major challenge

Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank, head of NATO's Joint Support and Enablement Command (JSEC), described the problems the units will face in an interview with Reuters.

"It will be a challenge to quickly provide high-quality care for, in the worst case, a large number of wounded."

The environment of a hypothetical conflict with Russia would be completely different from what America and its allies have faced in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sollfrank added.

Unlike the rebels in the Middle East, Russia has the military capabilities to threaten NATO aircraft, Sollfrank warns, so he predicts that the evacuation of the wounded will be done by land.

"In order to work out the plans, we have to consider all options for transporting a large number of wounded to medical facilities, which includes trains, possibly buses," said the NATO official.

At the same time, NATO is preparing plans for the deployment of tens of thousands of American soldiers along "land corridors" in Western Europe in the event of a war with Russia, a senior strategist of the Alliance told the British "Telegraph".

Last year, members of the US-led Western military pact agreed to put 300,000 troops ready to go to war, ostensibly in response to a potential Russian attack. And then the latter training exercises exposed the bureaucratic obstacles and infrastructure bottlenecks that prevent the rapid transfer of manpower and material across the continent.

The main route for US troops in the event of war with Russia would be through the Dutch port of Rotterdam to Germany and Poland, the report said.

Alternative corridors would lead from Italy through Slovenia and Croatia to Hungary, and from Greece and Turkey through Bulgaria and Romania.

In that case, the probable targets will be precisely the transport corridors of the NATO pact, from the Slovenian port of Kopar all the way to the famous "Gates of Ljubljana", because it is speculated that Slovenia could be the location for the first care of the wounded.

In a country where doctors have been on strike for ten months due to low wages and poor working conditions, while hospitals, such as the one in Trbovlje, are on the verge of bankruptcy, and 140,000 citizens have no doctors at all, and that number increases daily by 2,000 to 4,000 patients due to the departure of white coats to retirement or dismissal due to burnout, the construction of military hospitals and the introduction of wartime schedules for medical workers is clear evidence that there is nothing left of the promise of prosperity and peace after joining the EU and NATO, concludes RT Balkan.