LONDON/MOSCOW/KIEV (dpa-AFX) – After the USA, Great Britain also wants to expand its military engagement in Eastern Europe because of the tense situation in Ukraine. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to double the number of British troops in the region and to supply Estonia with self-defense weapons, the British government announced over the weekend. US President Joe Biden had previously announced that additional US troops would be deployed to NATO countries in Eastern Europe. Biden did not specify how many soldiers there might be or where they might be transferred and when. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ruled out the deployment of combat troops in Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion.
Russia’s Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev has rejected accusations that his country is behaving aggressively. “There is currently talk of Russia threatening Ukraine,” Patrushev said, according to the Interfax agency on Sunday. “This is a complete absurdity, there is no threat.” The former head of the domestic secret service FSB also accused the West of spreading “self-interested inventions” regarding a war. “We don’t want war, we don’t need it at all,” he said.
Reports of a massive Russian troop deployment near Ukraine have been the subject of criticism in the West for weeks. It is feared that Moscow could plan an attack on the neighboring country. The Kremlin denies this. It is also considered possible that fears are only being aroused in order to persuade the NATO states to make concessions regarding new security guarantees.
“We have no plans to deploy NATO combat troops in Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg told the BBC on Sunday, referring to a possible Russian invasion. NATO military trainers are deployed in the ex-Soviet republic, and the alliance is also helping to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities and is supplying military equipment. However, since Ukraine is not a NATO state, the guarantee of 100 percent security that members can claim does not apply to the country.
Prime Minister Johnson announced that he would soon be on the phone with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. He also wants to travel to the crisis region, the exact destination has not been announced for the time being. “The picture is of increasing concern,” Johnson tweeted about the situation. According to official figures, more than 900 British soldiers are currently stationed in Estonia, more than 100 in Ukraine and around 150 in Poland.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry in London also plans to announce new sanctions that are intended to affect Russia’s “strategic and financial interests”. A combat mission by British troops is “highly unlikely,” said department head Truss of the BBC.
According to the US administration, Putin has amassed enough military forces for a possible attack on Ukraine. “While we do not believe that President Putin has made the final decision to use these forces against Ukraine,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday. “But he clearly has that ability now.”
According to the New York Times, the US government is considering extremely painful economic sanctions in the event of a Russian invasion. For example, sanctions would hit Russian banks harder than ever, the paper wrote on Saturday. That will inevitably affect everyday life in Russia. The possible consequences are a stock market crash, high inflation and other forms of financial panic that would hurt people in Russia – from billionaires to government employees to middle-class families.
NATO and the United States responded in writing to the Russian demands on Wednesday. Above all, with a view to binding commitments to end NATO’s eastward expansion, both sides showed no willingness to negotiate. In particular, Russia wants to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and justifies this with its own security interests. The Western allies, on the other hand, point to the free choice of alliances between states.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow has criticized Western media for reporting on Russian troop deployments. The transfer of military personnel to Belarus, for example, is merely a matter of preparations for a joint exercise. The US State Department has expressed concern that Moscow may station troops in the neighboring country under the guise of the manoeuvres, and attack Ukraine from there.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj made a similar statement. He emphasized that there was no greater escalation than a year ago. Foreign journalists would like to see for themselves. “Are there tanks on the streets here? No, but that’s how it feels when you’re not here,” said Zelenskyj./bvi/haw/ast/DP/mis