Moscow is embarking on a Cold War of nerves, as its actions confuse its intentions regarding the rumored invasion of Ukraine. Russia “Increased” the presence of forces on the border with Ukraine at least “7,000 troops,” some of whom arrived there Wednesday, he said. senior official of the White House, characterizing as “false” the announcement of Moscow that it proceeded to the withdrawal of some forces.
Russia continues to move troops to the border with Ukraine and is likely to unleash a “limited area” The head of the Estonian Intelligence Service also supported a military attack against this country.
In this context, Russia and the West are engaged in a game of high strategy against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis. The latest developments on the Russian-Ukrainian border will be of concern to European leaders today, at 13:30 Greek time at a meeting to be held just before the start of the EU-Africa Summit.
Despite her new announcement Moscow for a new withdrawal of military forces from Crimea, NATO and Washington they are very wary of her assurances that she does not want war.
In his remarks at yesterday’s NATO Defense Ministers’ Conference, the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern over the concentration of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border, stressing that “this is the largest concentration of forces in Europe since the Cold War.” As he said, Russia has gathered in the region more than 100,000 soldiers and very heavy equipment.
“There are signs from Russia that diplomacy should continue, but so far we see no sign of de-escalation. “No withdrawal of troops or equipment,” he said.
“This is what we expect to happen before a major military operation,” he said, referring to a cyber-attack on the Defense Ministry on Tuesday afternoon and on Ukrainian banks, which some have linked to Russia.
At the same time, Stoltenberg pointed out that NATO is not a threat to Russia and the steps it is taking are “defensive”.
“We do not know what will happen in Ukraine, but we already know that there is a crisis in Europe’s security,” he said.
He said this was the “new normality” as Russia tried to test the principles underpinning European security and that it was using force to intimidate other European countries into accepting Russian demands.
In that context, he said, NATO would consider deploying new battle groups in central and southeastern areas within the Alliance – such as Romania – as part of its defense strategy against Russian aggression, noting that an additional $ 270 billion would be spent on defense.
The joint statement issued by the Alliance’s defense ministers, announcing the reinforcement of forces in the eastern regions of NATO, followed the same wavelength. “Russia’s actions pose a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security. In order to ensure the defense of all Allies, we will
“Development of additional ground forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, as well as additional naval and air means,” they underlined.
They added that “we are ready to further strengthen our defensive and deterrent stance to respond to all contingencies.”
At the same time, the NATO Secretary General, in line with the American president, warned that there would be a “high price” if Russia uses violence, noting that sanctions will be imposed.
Moscow: US instigates tension in Ukraine
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova launched an attack on the United States, noting that Washington was seeking to divert the European gas market from Russia, so destabilizing the situation in Ukraine was beneficial for it in space. all these years.
“Russia’s energy cooperation with the countries of Europe, which sat like a bone in the neck of Washington, which wants to grab another market and in fact such a market as that of gas. “That is why the destabilization of the situation in Ukraine, through which our gas went to Europe, has been beneficial over all these years,” Zakharova said.
He stressed that the United States is inciting tensions over Ukraine in order to prevent the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“Nord Stream 2 is a project that they tried to delay in every way, so that it would never be implemented, then they stopped its construction, then they invented reasons why it can not be put into operation and now they are trying to convince the whole “Inventing a new Russian ‘threat’ in order to impose more sanctions under this pretext and to gain even more arguments, in order to scare the Europeans with the prospect of not getting energy resources from us,” Zakharova added.
For its part, the State Department responded that Moscow was spreading fake news as a pretext to invade Ukraine.
He added that Washington was concerned about allegations by Russian President Vladimir Putin that a “genocide” was being committed in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and that US and Ukraine were developing biological or chemical weapons in the region to use them. are “completely false”.
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