The U.S. military will send an additional 3,000 troops to eastern Europe
On February 2, U.S. President Joe Biden approved additional troops to Europe to strengthen NATO's eastern flank against Russia's ongoing military buildup on the Ukrainian border.
Two White House officials revealed on the same day that the additional U.S. troops, about 2,000, will travel to Poland and Germany. In addition, 1,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in Germany will be transferred to Romania.
Announcing the news, Pentagon Press Secretary John Bryant said reinforcements, two thousand men from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, "will not fight in Ukraine" when Russia invades Ukraine, to "unmistakably show that we stand with NATO" and work together to protect the security of NATO's 30 members. But he stressed that the operation was not permanent and was intended to reassure European allies at a time of heightened tensions.
Bryant said: "These troops are not going to Ukraine to fight. We want to send a signal to Mr. Putin and to the world that the United States remains committed to NATO. ”
NATO Secretary-General Tins Stoltenberg said: "This is a strong demonstration of the commitment of the United States. ”
Biden has previously said he would not let U.S. troops go to Ukraine to fight against a Russian invasion. But Washington will provide Kiev with the weapons it needs to defend itself and work to reassure its allies in eastern Europe that the United States will fulfill its treaty responsibilities to protect allies in the event of an attack.
The Pentagon has ordered 8,500 troops stationed on the U.S. mainland to prepare for a trip to Europe. The United States currently has a permanent military force in Europe of between 75,000 and 80,000 men. In response to the highly tense geopolitical situation on the eastern flank of Europe, Washington may be able to send more troops if necessary. But the two thousand troops in this reinforcement are not part of the 8,500 U.S. servicemen who went on high alert last week and could be sent to Europe.
Now Moscow has mobilized more than a hundred thousand troops to masse on the Russian-Ukrainian border. The Kremlin denied plans to invade Ukraine, but insisted that it would take some sort of unspecified military action if NATO did not commit to never admit Kiev to nato.
Kobe Bryant, a Pentagon spokesman, said Washington still did not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has decided to invade Ukraine."
But he said Putin "showed no willingness to de-escalate tensions and continue to increase troops to Belarus, threatening Ukraine's north and Russia's border with eastern Ukraine." The U.S. military "prepared a series of emergency plans" for the Ukrainian operation in Königsberg. And the deployment being implemented "is not the total number of containment forces."
In addition, The Palace ridiculed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "fool" and british politicians as "stupid and ignorant". The reason why The Palace was so angry with Johnson was that he canceled his phone call with Putin on January 31 and visited Kiev on February 1.
Johnson said in Kiev that Russia had put a gun on Ukraine's head, while Moscow's amassed more than 100,000 troops near the border "is probably the greatest hostility Ukraine has faced in our lifetime." ”
Britain expressed support for Ukraine's right to independence and autonomy, claiming that the economic sanctions that the Western Alliance was preparing to impose on Russia when it invaded Ukraine were not "a sign of hostility toward Russia", but a show of support for Kiev. "It's important for Russia to back off and choose the diplomatic path, and I think that's still possible," he said. ”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded: "It makes sense to talk to anyone. Presidents Russia and Putin remain open to anyone communicating. Even for some of the "fools", Putin is ready to patiently explain. ”
Diplomatic efforts by all sides are continuing, with Turkish President Recep Erdogan planning a visit to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy. Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, Ibrahim Karin, held talks with US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan on the 1st. The White House National Security Council statement said both sides "underscore their shared commitment to ongoing diplomatic and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine." ”
President Putin said on the 1st that the United States and its allies ignored Russia's most important security requirements, that is, they refused Ukraine to join NATO and withdrew their weapons from russia. Washington reaffirmed its commitment to Ukraine and its territorial integrity.
Putin met with the Hungarian prime minister at the Krk Palace on the 1st
Hours before Mr. Putin's press conference, the U.S.-Russian foreign ministers spoke again in an effort to ease ukraine's crisis, which is likely to spark a vicious war. Washington has asked Moscow to withdraw troops deployed on the Ukrainian border in order to "immediately reduce tensions," but Washington has also had to admit that russia has not provided "any indication" of changes in the coming days.
Shortly after the us-Russian foreign ministers' phone call, President Putin made a rare speech on the same subject, saying on the one hand that he "hopes" to defuse tensions between Russia and the West, while condemning the United States for ignoring Russia's "concerns" and using Ukraine to contain Russia.
Putin is the one he made after a phone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov highlighted deep differences but mutually stated their willingness to continue the dialogue; it was also the first time in more than a month that a Russian president publicly commented on the confrontation with the West over Ukraine.
He said at a news conference that Moscow was still studying the responses received last week from the United States and NATO to Russia's security demands.
The West refuses to exclude Ukraine from joining NATO on the grounds that no foreign country can veto anyone who can join NATO. Putin said: "It is now clear that Russia's fundamental concerns have been ignored. ”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Demitro Kureba said at a press conference on the 2nd: "I believe that when the two fundamental issues are resolved, Russia's war against Ukraine and the war in Europe more broadly will eventually stop." The first is that the West should shift its strategy of dealing with Russia from passive to proactive. He added that "the ambiguity of Ukraine's role as an integral part of the West must end." The Ukrainian people chose this path and protected it at a high cost. ”
"We are historically, politically and culturally part of the West," the Ukrainian foreign minister said, and "it is time to stop the harmful ambiguity that allows the Kremlin to continue to try to undermine Ukraine or reverse its path against the will of the Ukrainian people." ”
According to outside analysis, Putin slammed Washington's goal on the 2nd when he used Kiev to encircle Russia and leaked a sentence: "Russia does not want Ukraine to join NATO and then use NATO's strength to recover Crimea", exposing Moscow's long-term biggest heart disease, that is, if you want to keep Crimea in Russia forever, you must let Ukraine stay within the sphere of Influence of Russia...
Putin was defensive, pointing out that "the main purpose of the United States is to contain Russia, and Ukraine has become a tool they use to drag Russia into armed conflict and thus impose the harshest sanctions on us." ”
Then he changed his tone, hoping to finally find a diplomatic outlet, "although it will not be easy," Putin said when he received Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Paradoxically, although Hungary is a member of the European Union, Prime Minister Orbán is an ally of Putin. Orban responded to Putin by saying the differences between the two sides were "resolvable."
The West countered that Putin's high-profile accusation that NATO used Kiev to encircle Russia, but did not mention the fact that more than 100,000 Russian troops had surrounded the gates of Ukraine for weeks, which naturally made the West think that Moscow was ready to invade Ukraine again since its occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
But Königsang constantly explained that Russia had no intention of invading Ukraine, but the Western countries did not believe it. A senior EU official said: "We keep hearing new promises that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine, but all their practical actions tell us the exact opposite." ”
The British Prime Minister visited Kiev on the 1st
The Western countries considered their preconditions for Moscow to be simple and clear, and Russia's rapid retreat from the Ukrainian border proved with practical actions that it was not ready to start a war at any time.
US Secretary of State Blinken reiterated his demand on the 2nd that Russia must withdraw its troops and "immediately cool down the tension", if on the contrary, the West will take prompt and severe economic sanctions against Russia.
Moscow, for its part, is torn by the loss of the traditional snobbish scope of Russian history. The Köpper does not want Kiev to join NATO and move closer to the EU; it demands that NATO end its strategy of eastward expansion and withdraw its military forces from eastern Europe. Yet these demands were rejected by the West.
In fact, the Palace of Justice is well aware that the annexation of Crimea in 2014 laid a time bomb for future European geopolitical development.
Putin clearly painted a picture of Ukraine once it joined NATO and would use force to recover Crimea: "If Ukraine launches a war against the Russian territory of Crimea, what should we do?" Are we at war with NATO? Putin is trying to counter the West's assertion that Ukraine has the right to choose its own alliance on the grounds that "no one can unilaterally strengthen its own security to the detriment of the interests of the other."
Russia's opposition to the West seemed irreconcilable, but Blinken declared his willingness to continue the dialogue, and Lavrov also said: "Blinken agrees that there is a reason for us to continue the dialogue." ”
In addition, the leaders of the United Kingdom and Poland went to Kiev on the 2nd to express solidarity with Ukraine. Prime Minister Johnson said it was urgent for Russia to retreat and choose a diplomatic approach to resolving the conflict. He warned of the danger of Moscow launching an attack on Kiev "imminent."
To deter Moscow from attacking, the West hastened a series of actions to sanction Russia. In Johnson's words, sanctions were activated as soon as one of the toes of the Palace of Kers reached into Ukraine.
The United States and the United Kingdom are the countries that Russia's super-rich like to invest in the most, and the United States and Britain announced on the 31st that they are ready to strike at the inner circle of the Palace of Kers.