The noises of boots are a little more heard in Europe. US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would “soon” send a small number of US troops to Eastern Europe. This decision comes against a backdrop of tensions with Russia around Ukraine.
“I will send American troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries (Editor’s note: North Atlantic Treaty Organization) shortly. Not a lot, “said the American president to journalists when he got off the plane, returning from a trip to the American state of Pennsylvania. The United States has already placed 8,500 soldiers on alert to reinforce NATO.
Joe Biden has however said and repeated that there is no question of sending American troops to Ukraine, which is not a member of the military alliance. Sending troops to eastern countries would, however, be an additional means of pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the Americans believe could attack Ukraine in February.
War is “not inevitable”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated on Friday that with more than 100,000 Russian troops deployed on Ukraine’s borders, Russia has amassed sufficient forces for an invasion. But he stressed that a conflict between Ukraine and Russia is “not inevitable”. “There is still time and scope for diplomacy,” he added. In London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “determined to accelerate diplomatic efforts and strengthen deterrence to avoid bloodshed in Europe”, according to a spokeswoman for his services.
“The probability of the attack exists, it has not disappeared and it has not been less serious in 2021”. But “we do not see an escalation greater than that which existed” last year, for his part declared Friday Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. “We don’t need this panic,” he stressed, while calling on Russia to “take steps to prove” that it is not going to attack. “The greatest risk for Ukraine” currently is “the destabilization of the situation inside the country. »
Russia denies any plan of invasion, but considers itself threatened by the expansion of NATO for 20 years and by Western support for Ukraine. She therefore linked the de-escalation to the end of the policy of enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance, in particular to Ukraine, and to the return of Western military deployments to the 1997 borders. The United States and NATO on Wednesday rejected these requests. The Europeans and the Americans have promised tough sanctions in the event of an attack on Ukraine. Were mentioned the strategic gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 between Russia and Germany, or even the access of Russians to transactions in dollars, the queen currency in international trade. The United States and Europe are also working to increase natural gas deliveries to Europe to deal with the consequences of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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