NATO allies are strengthening the eastern side of the alliance in response to Russia’s military build-up around Ukraine, as the EU plans more than $1.3 billion in loans and grants for Kiev.
The moves are part of efforts by the US and its allies to gear up for an imminent military offensive, which Russia denies is planning.
NATO said allies were keeping forces on standby and sending ships and jet fighters to their northeastern and southeastern member states.
“I welcome the contribution of additional forces to NATO,” said Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a statement. NATO will continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies, including strengthening the eastern is part of the alliance.”
Denmark said it was sending a warship to the Baltic Sea and would send four F-16 jet fighters to Lithuania. Spain is sending ships to join NATO forces in the Black and Mediterranean Seas and is considering sending jet fighters to Bulgaria. The Netherlands has been deploying two F-35 jet fighters to Bulgaria since April. The US is also considering increasing its military presence among coalition members in Eastern Europe, and France has said it may send troops to Romania.
Mr Stoltenberg was meeting with the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland in Brussels on Monday to discuss the situation. Both are close partners of the alliance but are not members of NATO.
The deployment is a response to demands by Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO withdraw its forces from its eastern members, once subordinate to Moscow. NATO deployed some 5,000 troops to Poland and the Baltic countries after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.
Russia has also insisted that NATO provides guarantees that it will not give membership to Ukraine, reversing the alliance signed in 2008, without giving a time frame, that Ukraine and Georgia would become members.
The US and its allies rejected both demands in several meetings with Russian officials earlier this month.
On Monday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkeviks said the level of Russian and Belarusian troops in Belarus has reached the point where they pose a threat not only to Ukraine, but to NATO as well.
“There is a need to increase NATO’s presence in the eastern side,” he said.
On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels would make available a 1.2 billion euro loan package, the equivalent of $1.36 billion, of which half would be disbursed quickly to help Kiev recover due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. To help meet additional funding needs. The new loan package would require approval from member states and EU lawmakers.
Brussels will double its grants to Ukraine this year, giving Kiev an additional €120 million. Ms von der Leyen said EU officials would soon begin work on a second, larger loan package to help Ukraine meet future funding needs.
The European Union has given loans, grants and investments of about €17 billion in Ukraine since 2014.
“Ukraine is an independent and sovereign country. It makes its own choices and the EU stands with Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the announcement on Twitter, saying that “a strong Ukraine is vital to European security.”
The announcement comes as EU foreign ministers meet to discuss the crisis over Ukraine, talks that will include US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The US, the European Union and other Western countries are working on a package of harsh sanctions to impose on Russia if it sends troops to Ukraine again.
In a statement, the foreign ministers said, “Any further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine will have massive consequences and serious costs. This includes a wide range of regional and individual restrictive measures that will be adopted in coordination with partners.” “
This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed
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