NATO and the United States accuse Russia of continuing to build forces along the Ukrainian border | international

NATO and the US continue to mistrust Russia, though Moscow insists that it withdraw part of the forces accumulated along the Ukrainian border. “We have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces,” he said on Wednesday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The leader of the alliance believes that the movements are going in the opposite direction of what the Kremlin asserts. “We are closely watching what Russia is doing in Ukraine and around Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said shortly before chairing a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. The conclusion of this analysis leaves no room for doubt, according to the Secretary-General: “They are increasing the number of troops and there are more forces on the way. So far there is no stopping the escalation. “

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also questioned the Kremlin’s statements. “Unfortunately, there is a difference between what Russia says and what Russia does,” he said in an ABC interview. “What we are witnessing is not a major withdrawal, on the contrary, we continue to see forces amassed on the border, especially the forces that will be at the forefront of any new aggression against Ukraine,” he added. His administration’s spokesman, Ned Price, spoke along the same lines, in more detail: “We’ve seen the opposite in recent weeks, even in recent days. There are more Russian forces, not less, on the border. These forces are “moving alarmingly to the combat positions” Amanda Mars.

Defense ministers agreed to start studying the deployment of troops on the eastern side of the alliance, with battalions in Romania and Bulgaria, which would be added to those already operating in Poland and the Baltic states. At the end of the meeting, Stoltenberg lamented that Russia had imposed a “new normal, in which it showed that it could jeopardize the basic principles of our security.” The Secretary-General of the Alliance believes that Moscow’s determination to “intimidate” neighboring countries is forcing the Western allies to strengthen their defense against any potential aggression.

The meeting of ministers scheduled for weeks has begun On the same day that US spy agencies indicated that a Russian attack may have begun against Ukraine. Since Washington shared this information on Friday, NATO has been on constant alert and the European Union has accelerated preparations for possible sanctions against Russia.

At the end of the meeting, Stoltenberg accused Russia of carrying out the largest military mobilization since the end of the Cold War. And to have “a formidable force capable of invading Ukraine”. The Secretary-General noted that Western warnings about the troop surge, which first began at the end of 2021, have been met. And although the Allies were never sure of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, the fact of such accumulated power makes a violent outcome possible. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we know what happened at other times,” Stoltenberg said, referring to Russia’s attacks against Ukraine in 2014 or the presence of Russian forces in the territory. from Georgia s Moldova without permission from the authorities of those countries.

The Secretary-General emphasized that satellite images analyzed by various spy agencies show that at the moment there has been no withdrawal of Russian forces. The information we share [entre los aliados] It can also be compared in public domain sources, with images taken from commercial satellites,” added the Norwegian.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also warned that advertisements are one thing and facts another. We are responding to the reality we have, and so far we do not see any withdrawal of forces [rusas]. We just heard it. He said during a marathon trip to different parts of the country to observe military exercises and commemorate the new Ukrainian Unity Day so far.” Zelensky, who has been calling for calm for days, is moving in a delicate balance: the president also warned that destabilization and mixed war pose great threats to the country .

An example of these threats is the massive attacks on computers on Tuesday by several official websites and two major government banks, which left thousands of customers without service for hours. On Wednesday, Mikhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation, warned that it was the “worst computer attack” in Ukraine’s history. He declared in a televised press conference that “it is clear that it was prepared in advance with a clear aim of destabilizing and spreading panic and doing everything possible so that a certain chaos arises in our country.”

Wednesday began with the highest tension in Eastern Europe. But the progress of the hours showed that Moscow was not preparing for an immediate military coup. “Wars in Europe rarely start on Wednesdays,” ironically, Russia’s permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, in a comment to the German newspaper the scientist. From Moscow, Washington’s predictions of the February 16 attack were criticized as the “peak of Western propaganda.”

But the tense calm on Wednesday did not cause Westerners to lower their guard. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, called for an extraordinary European summit on Thursday in order to analyze the situation in Ukraine. Michel took advantage of the fact that the leaders of the 27 EU countries, including the Spaniard, Pedro Sanchez, are in Brussels for the EU summit with the African Union, which takes place on Thursday and Friday. Michel also announced that he will hold an international donors’ conference to help Kiev. Brussels is already aware that the 1,200 million euros provided by the European Commission will not be enough to support the accounts of the Ukrainian state.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, also expressed doubts about the alleged reduction of tension by Moscow. “We welcome de-escalation, but there are no concrete indications from Russia,” the community leader said after a phone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. both of them They commented on possible sanctions against Russia and contingency plans to mitigate collateral damage. Italy is one of the European countries most dependent on Russian gas.

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