Political | Process

“I want to provide some facts on these preparations that will reinforce our commitment to NATO and to the NATO Response Force and increase our readiness,”

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• Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. “Secretary Austin has placed a range of units in the United States on a heightened preparedness to deploy, which increases our readiness to provide forces if NATO should activate the NRF or if other situations developed.

• The development comes as Russia has amassed approximately 100,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border and is demanding concessions from the West, including never allowing Ukraine to join NATO. NATO has indicated that what Russia is demanding are nonstarters for the organization.

• Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, demanding that NATO promise it will never allow Ukraine to join and that other actions, such as stationing alliance troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed. Some of these, like any pledge to permanently bar Ukraine, are nonstarters for NATO — creating a seemingly intractable deadlock that many fear can only end in war.

• Russia denies it is planning an invasion, and says the Western accusations are merely a cover for NATO’s own planned provocations. Recent days have seen high-stakes diplomacy that failed to reach any breakthrough and maneuvering on both sides.

• NATO said Monday it is bolstering its “deterrence” in the Baltic Sea region. Denmark is sending a frigate and deploying F-16 warplanes to Lithuania; Spain is sending four fighter jets to Bulgaria and three ships to the Black Sea to join NATO naval forces; and France stands ready to send troops to Romania. The Netherlands also plans to send two F-35 fighter aircraft to Bulgaria from April.

SOURCE: AP NEWS – DAILYWIRE