The u.s reportedly is planning to send more troops to europe to help
ukraine. US President Joe Biden has orders nearly 3,000 american troops to
eastern europe and move what it said to counter russia. the moves come ahead
of a fresh flurry of diplomacy.
On wednesday uk prime minister boris johnson warned Russian President
Vladimir Putin in a phone call that any further incursion into ukraine would
be a tragic miscalculation.
As reported by reuters, the united states will send nearly 3,000 extra
troops to Poland and Romania to shield eastern europe from a potential
spillover from the crisis over the massing of russian troops near ukraine,
u.s officials said on wednesday.
Russia has denied plans to invade ukraine but signaled it was in no mood for
compromise on wednesday by mocking Britain, calling prime minister Boris
Johnson utterly confused and accusing british politicians of stupidity and
ignorance.
Moscow has deployed more than 100,000 troops near ukraine's borders and says
it could take unspecified military measures if its demands are not met,
including a promise by nato never to admit kiev.
A striker squadron of around 1,000 u.s service members based in volk germany
would be sent to romania the pentagon said while around 1,700 service
members, mainly from the 82nd airborne division would deploy from fort bragg
north carolina to poland. 300 other service members will move from fort
bragg to germany.
President Biden said the deployment was consistent with what he had told
russian president Vladimir Putin, as long as he is acting aggressively we're
going to make sure we can reassure our nato allies and eastern europe that
we're there, he said according to media reports on twitter.
The objective pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said was to send a strong
signal to putin and frankly to the world, that nato matters to the united
states and it matters to our allies.
"We know that putin also bristles at nato, about nato he's made no secret of
that. we are making it clear that we're going to be prepared to defend our
NATO Allies if it comes to that. Hopefully it won't come to that."
Poland's defense minister Marush Bloshchok said the us deployment was a
strong sign of solidarity. nato secretary general Jen Stoltenberg also
welcomed it, saying the alliance's response to russia was defensive and
proportional.
Efforts to reach a diplomatic solution continued, despite some western
countries describing russia's main demands as non-starters and moscow
showing no sign of withdrawing them.
Reuters reported that Biden and french President Emmanuel Macron discuss
coordination of diplomatic efforts and plans to impose economic costs on
moscow should it invade ukraine, the White House said.
Macron said he was planning to talk to putin soon too.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is set to visit his counterpart vladimir
zolensky in ukraine on thursday after pitching turkey as a mediator to east
tensions with russia, while German Chancellor Olaf Schultz said he would
meet putin in moscow soon, without giving a date.
On the other hand russia has criticized us military moves as destructive
step. moscow says the u.s military deployments in eastern europe increased
tensions.
The u.s decision to deploy more than 3,000 US troops in germany, poland and
romania is a destructive step that makes it harder to reach a compromise
over ukraine.
Russia's deputy foreign minister has said as moscow continues to build up
its forces. Alexander Grushko said the move by Joe Biden would increase
military tension and reduce scope for political decision and would delight
ukrainian authorities who would continue sabotaging the minsk agreements
with impunity.
According to the guardian the minced agreements of 2014 and 2015 were
designed to reach a political settlement in the east of ukraine, including
greater autonomy.
John Kirby a pentagon spokesperson said the u.s movements were designed to
deter aggression and enhance our defensive capabilities and frontline allied
states.
"We expect them to move in coming days."
Vladimir putin continues to add forces combined arms offensive capabilities,
even over just the last 24 hours he continues to add in western russia and
belarus and in the mediterranean in the north atlantic, kirby added he has
shown no signs of being interested or willing to escalate detentions.
Meanwhile the NATO secretary general Jen Stoltenberg said on thursday that
russia had been moving 30,000 combat troops and modern weapons to belarus in
recent days. Moscow's biggest military deployment to the country since the
end of the cold war.
The deployment included spetsnaz special operations forces Su-35 fighter
jets, dual capable of standard missiles and S-400 air defense systems,
stoltenberg said.
"All this will be combined with russia's annual nuclear forces exercise," he
added.
The term dual capable which stoltenberg used for the iskander missiles is
used to describe weapons meant for conventional and nuclear warfare.
The moves come ahead of a fresh flurry of diplomacy. on wednesday Boris
Johnson warned putin in a phone call that any further incursion into ukraine
would be a tragic miscalculation, according to downing street.
The Kremlin account of the call said putin had complained that his demand
for security guarantees had not been met and accused the kiev government of
the chronic sabotage of the minsk agreements.
On thursday the turkish President and wild card of NATO diplomacy erdogan
will fly to kiev to offer himself again in the role of mediator between
ukraine and russia.
Reports from the guardian noted that the Erdogan mediation proposal has not
yet been picked up by russia but jake sullivan, the US national security
adviser and ibrahim kalan the chief adviser to Erdogan spoke on tuesday
about their commitment to deter further russian aggression against ukraine,
according to a white house statement.
