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News

UK readies 1,000 more troops as Johnson visits NATO, Poland

Hopes rise as efforts intensify to defuse Ukraine tensions

February 10, 2022 08:31 AM


Britain said Wednesday it was ready to deploy 1,000 more troops to deal with any humanitarian crisis linked to Ukraine, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed to NATO and Poland.

His trip Thursday coincides with crisis talks in Moscow between British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and her counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as the UK and other US-led allies demand Russia halt its threats against Ukraine.

"As an alliance we must draw lines in the snow and be clear there are principles upon which we will not compromise," Johnson said ahead of his talks in Brussels with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

"That includes the security of every NATO ally and the right of every European democracy to aspire to NATO membership," he said, rebuffing Russian demands to rule out Ukraine ever joining the alliance.

From Brussels, Johnson will head to Warsaw to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and members of a UK military detachment in the country, which is set to grow by 350 more troops.

Britain is nearly doubling its NATO deployment in Estonia, from 900 to 1,750, and has a smaller force in Ukraine for training on UK anti-tank missiles.

Johnson will promise "1,000 more British troops will be put at readiness in the UK to support a humanitarian response in the region should it be needed", Downing Street said.

He will also say that Britain is deploying more Royal Air Force jets in southern Europe, and two Royal Navy vessels to the eastern Mediterranean.

Johnson, who visited Kyiv last week in a show of solidarity, added in a message to Moscow: "What we need to see is real diplomacy, not coercive diplomacy."

Truss meanwhile is leading the UK charge on possible sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine, warning of "massive consequences" ahead of her talks Thursday with Lavrov.

The Russian foreign ministry retorted by calling for a "change in the tone" of British rhetoric.

Macron debriefs Biden

Hopes rose that efforts to stop Russia from invading Ukraine may be starting to pay off, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joining Kyiv and Moscow in a chorus of "positive" voices assessing that diplomatic bids to defuse the crisis could work. 

In the face of the worst stand-off between Russia and the West since the Cold War, diplomatic action has kicked into high gear, taking French President Emmanuel Macron to Kyiv and Moscow earlier this week.

After separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky, Macron said on Tuesday he glimpsed a way forward towards easing tensions.

The Russian leader had told him that Moscow "would not be the source of an escalation", he said.

While the West accuses Russia of having massed 100,000 soldiers near Ukraine's borders, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said "diplomacy is continuing to lower tensions".

"The way the greater European community responds to this crisis will determine the future of European security and of each individual European state," he said.

More upbeat noises also emerged from Moscow, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters "there were positive signals that a solution to Ukraine could be based only on fulfilling the Minsk agreements", which ended the worst of the fighting in 2014 between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists.

Scholz, who had come under fire at home over his dithering response to the Ukraine crisis, said he saw "progress" after a flurry of talks on various levels.

"The task is that we ensure the security in Europe, and I believe that that will be achieved," he added after meeting Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

- 'Consequences' -
On Wednesday, Macron briefed his US counterpart Joe Biden on his talks with Putin and Zelensky, the White House said.

As diplomatic efforts intensify, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned that Putin was continuing to send troops to the border.

"We have continued to see even over the last 24 hours additional capabilities flow from elsewhere in Russia to that border with Ukraine and Belarus," he told reporters.

But Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said the Russian forces on the frontier did not appear to be ready to launch an all-out assault, and were instead being used primarily "for political pressure and blackmail" at this stage.

Scholz, who is to huddle with Baltic leaders on Thursday, is accelerating his diplomatic pace to reassure allies that Germany would not be the weakest link among allies in standing up to Russia.

Less than 24 hours after a trip to Washington, Scholz late Tuesday stood alongside Polish leader Andrzej Duda and Macron to declare the Europeans' unity in their goal of averting war.

Scholz, who took over from Angela Merkel in December, has been struggling to emerge from behind the veteran leader's shadows.

Noisier voices debating the Western response, including within his own Social Democrats, have at times drowned him out, leading critics to question Germany's resolve in the crisis.

Scholz will travel to Kyiv and then Moscow next week, where he will have his first face-to-face meeting with Putin.

Britain has also intensified action, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in Moscow on Wednesday to deliver a message that Russia must choose a peaceful path in Ukraine or face "massive consequences" from Western sanctions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Poland on Thursday, after Britain promised to send 350 more troops to Poland's border with Belarus.

- 'Compromises' -
Putin, who has demanded sweeping security guarantees from NATO and the United States, said after his talks with Macron that Moscow would "do everything to find compromises that suit everyone".

He said several proposals put forward by Macron could "form a basis for further steps" on easing the crisis over Ukraine but did not give any details.

At the same time as sending its military hardware to Ukraine's borders, Putin has issued demands the West says are unacceptable, including barring Ukraine from joining NATO and rolling back alliance forces in eastern Europe.

The French presidency said Macron's counterproposals included an engagement from both sides not to take any new military action, the launching of a strategic dialogue and efforts to revive the peace process for Ukraine's conflict.

It also said an agreement would ensure the withdrawal of around 30,000 Russian soldiers from Belarus at the end of joint military exercises later this month.

The Kremlin insisted it never intended to leave the troops permanently on Belarusian territory.

The West faces a tough task trying to convince a wary Zelensky to accept any compromises.

Kyiv has laid out three "red lines" it vows not to cross -- no compromise over Ukraine's territorial integrity, no direct talks with the separatists and no interference in its foreign policy.



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