Russia and the West have clashed over each other’s troop levels in Eastern Europe as tensions in a standoff over Ukraine continue to rise.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on February 3 accused Moscow of amassing some 30,000 combat troops and modern weapons in Belarus in recent days in what amounts to the biggest Russian military deployment to the neighboring country since the end of the Cold War.
Stoltenberg’s announcement came after Washington said it would send thousands of troops to Europe to bolster NATO allies amid a continued standoff prompted by a massive Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border that the West suspects could be the prelude to an invasion.
The Kremlin said on February 3 that the U.S. move was further ramping up the crisis instead of de-escalating it.
Russia and Belarus have announced joint military drills later this month amid rising tensions over Moscow’s massing an estimated 100,000 soldiers near Ukraine. Some of those soldiers and military hardware have been placed in Belarus, which also shares a border with Ukraine.
Stoltenberg, speaking to reporters in Brussels on February 3, said the Russian deployment to Belarus included Speznaz special operations forces, SU-35 fighter jets, dual-capable Iskander missiles, and S-400 air-defense systems.
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“All this will be combined with Russia’s annual nuclear forces’ exercise,” Stoltenberg added. The term “dual-capable,” which Stoltenberg used for the Iskander missiles, refers to weapons meant for both conventional and nuclear warfare.
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The NATO chief called on Russia to take action to “de-escalate” the situation and repeated warnings that “any further Russian aggression would have severe consequences and carry a heavy price.”
On February 2, the Pentagon announced it will send about 3,000 troops to Poland, Romania, and Germany this week, a decision that U.S. President Joe Biden said was consistent with what he has told Russian President Vladimir Putin and represents “a sacred obligation” under Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty — the key mutual-defense clause.
Some 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Germany are being sent to Romania, and another 2,000 stationed in the United States are being flown to Germany and Poland, the Pentagon said.
Moscow has not disclosed the size of the troop contingent it has sent into Belarus, but Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who arrived in Belarus on February 3 ahead of the joint drills, has said the number of soldiers involved is below the 13,000-troop maximum agreed in 2011 under Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) rules as set out in the Vienna Document.
When that level is breached, Russia is obligated to invite observers from the OSCE to the area.
The joint drills are scheduled to last for 10 days, from February 10 to 20.
Russia, which denies it is planning to invade Ukraine, has claimed the United States and NATO are the instigators, citing the Western response as evidence.
“We are constantly urging our American partners to stop escalating tensions on the European continent,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Unfortunately, the Americans continue to do it,” he said, adding that the most recent deployment of U.S. troops to bolster NATO forces in Europe had exacerbated tensions.
“Obviously, these are not the steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, on the contrary, these are actions that lead to an increase in tensions,” Peskov said.
Therefore, he added, Russia’s concerns over NATO’s eastward expansion and U.S. troop deployment were “absolutely clear, absolutely justified.”
“Any measures taken by Russia to ensure its own security and interests are also within reason,” Peskov added.
In Bucharest, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a meeting of foreign ministers from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states that France and NATO were doing everything to convince Russia to choose dialogue rather than escalation.
Le Drian said Paris’s offer to send troops to Romania as part of wider NATO plans to bolster its ranks on the eastern flank were not meant to provoke Russia.
On the diplomatic front, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he plans to travel to Moscow for a meeting with Putin after the Russian leader had a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on February 2.
“That is planned and will take place soon,” Scholz said late on February 2 in an interview on public broadcaster ZDF, without specifying a date.
Johnson warned Putin that any incursion into Ukraine would be “a tragic miscalculation,” his spokesman said.
Separately, Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on February 2 discussed the coordination of diplomatic efforts and plans to impose economic costs on Moscow should it invade Ukraine, the White House said.
Macron said he was also planning to talk to Putin soon.
Separately, the Belarusian Foreign ministry on February 3 summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to protest what it said was the launch of a military drone that Minsk claims violated its border on January 24, flying in from Ukraine to spy on a Belarusian military training facility.
A Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the Belarusian protest a provocation and said Ukraine had not used any drones.
