UKRAINE TO WEST ‘VIGILANT AND FIRM’; UK TO OFFER MAJOR NATO DEPLOYMENT

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, pictured with UK troops stationed in Estonia, says the UK is offering to increase its deployment amid rising ‘Russian hostility’ (Twitter)

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Sun 30 January 2022:

Kyiv has encouraged the West to be “vigilant and firm” in its negotiations with Moscow, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored his Western allies not to cause “panic” over Russia’s large troop deployment near the Ukrainian border.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke with his French counterpart Yves Le Drian in the latest round of diplomatic maneuvering.

France announced plans to deploy hundreds of troops to Romania, a NATO member in the east, as part of a deployment first announced by President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month.

Russia has also sent more troops to the frontier with Belarus, which lies to the north of Ukraine, as it steps up demands for wide-ranging security guarantees, including that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO.

UK to offer major NATO deployment

Following Moscow’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine’s border, the United Kingdom is considering a large NATO deployment as part of a plan to strengthen Europe’s borders.

Any Russian intervention into Ukraine would be punished with rapid sanctions, according to the United Kingdom, and would be terrible for both sides.

Before travelling to the region, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and join the chorus of Western leaders pressing him to back down.

“This package would send a clear message to the Kremlin – we will not tolerate their destabilising activity, and we will always stand with our NATO allies in the face of Russian hostility,” Johnson said in a statement late on Saturday.

The offer could double the number of UK troops in eastern Europe and see “defensive weapons” sent to Estonia, Johnson’s office said. There are about 1,150 UK troops in the region at the moment.

“I have ordered our Armed Forces to prepare to deploy across Europe next week, ensuring we are able to support our NATO allies,” Johnson said.

In Washington, Biden nevertheless said he would soon send a small number of US troops to bolster the NATO presence in Eastern Europe as tensions remain heightened.

The US already has tens of thousands of troops stationed across mostly Western Europe.

Ukraine has turned increasingly to the West since Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and began fuelling a separatist conflict in the east of the country that has cost more than 13,000 lives.

Russia has also amassed more air and sea assets in the region, according to Western sources, presenting a multifaceted threat unlike any seen since the Cold War.

Moscow has requested a slew of security guarantees, including the fact that Ukraine would never be admitted to NATO.

The West has rejected Russia’s core requests, such as preventing new members from entering the alliance, but has spelled out a number of areas where it believes there is potential for negotiation with Moscow.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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