Currently, Russian battalions in Brest, Belarus (site of a border fortress Soviet troops captured from Poland in 1939) are just 110 miles east of Warsaw.įurther to the south, Romania and Bulgaria are alarmed by Russia’s large naval buildup on the Black Sea, and the possibility that neighboring Ukraine could become a Russian-occupied warzone. Though conveniently positioned for an offensive on Kyiv, these forces are also on the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia-countries invaded by Moscow in 1939-1940. Poland and the Baltic states are especially concerned with Moscow’s deployment to Belarus of 30,000 troops mostly from its faraway Eastern military District, along with advanced weapon including Iskander and S-400 missiles, and Su-35S fighters.
That is manifestly credible because the forces involved are relatively small, lack heavy armored vehicles, are widely dispersed, and dwarfed by the tens of thousands of troops Russia has arrayed in western Russia and Belarus.
Nonetheless, Washington and NATO leaders have emphasized the new troops would not be sent into Ukraine, neither preemptively nor in event of a Russian invasion.
troops remain on heightened alert status, meaning they could deploy on short notice, perhaps in event of Russian escalation in Ukraine. Washington has dispatched 3,000 airborne and mechanized infantry soldiers and a half-dozen F-15 fighters, while London is deploying more than 1,000 additional troops. As Russian troops continue to mass around Ukraine, the United States and many of its NATO allies have begun deploying combat troops, warships, and aircraft to Eastern Europe to reassure anxious member states bordering Ukraine and Belarus.
0 kommentar(er)
