BIDEN FORMALLY APPROVES TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO EASTERN EUROPE AS TENSIONS MOUNT OVER UKRAINE

Wed 02 February 2022:

US President Joe Biden has approved sending additional forces to Eastern Europe as Washington moves to avert a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Wednesday that troops would soon be moved to Poland, Romania and Germany in response to the “current security climate”.

He told a news briefing that 1,000 forces currently based in Germany would be repositioned to Romania and 2,000 troops would be deployed from the United States to Poland and Germany.

The announcement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of trying to provoke Moscow into a war.

In his first comments on the Ukraine crisis in more than a month, Putin also reiterated Russia’s security demands and said it was clear that the Kremlin’s “fundamental concerns” had been ignored by Washington and NATO.

Russia increasing force readiness near Ukraine, US satellite company says

New satellite images suggest Russia has bolstered the overall readiness of its military deployments in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia by bringing in more personnel and troops, a private US satellite imagery company has said.

Maxar Technologies said in a statement that the images were taken from January 19 to February 1. It noted that while Russia had deployed military equipment and units near Ukraine over the past couple of months, in many cases few troops or new accommodation units for additional personnel had been observed.

But the new images showed fresh and significant deployments in Belarus and more personnel at various military sites, Maxar’s statement said.

“Troop tents/shelters for personnel have been seen at virtually every deployment location in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia which suggests that the units are now accompanied with troops and have increased their overall readiness level,” Maxar said. “Moreover, local military training activity (including live-fire artillery and manoeuvre training) has been observed in progress at numerous training areas.”

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