NATO military commanders will draw up plans for the creation of allied battlegroups in central and southeastern Europe, in response to the “new normal” of a persistent Russian threat to the Continent, the alliance’s top official said Wednesday.
For several months now, much of the U.S. and European foreign and security policy community’s attention has been riveted to the Russia-Ukraine border, where more than 100,000 Russian troops remain massed and equipped for a potential invasion. Most of the internal debates in the West during this time have focused on variables that are simply unknowable: What are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions? What are his objectives? And will the U.S. and its NATO allies be able to deter him from starting a war that would radically alter the geopolitical landscape of Europe, but also the world?
In early September, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, a port city on the Pacific coast, to issue a call to action. Russia, he said, needed a new generation of pioneers to revive the country’s eastern frontier. “The development of the Far Eastern region is of huge importance to Russia,” Putin said, urging the assembled businesspeople to invest in the region. No less than “the development of our country not [just] for decades, but for centuries to come” depended on it, he added.
Two stories out of Italy have attracted international attention this week: The country’s chaotic election of its president, and a controversial video conference between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian business leaders. Both highlighted the ways in which Italy, which could play an important role in the European Union on the standoff between the West and Russia over Ukraine, has instead remained a silent bystander.
While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don’t expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West, and his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had not verified Russia’s claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.
In order to maintain its neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel has refused to sell the Iron Dome air defense system to Kyiv. The Ukrainian government officially requested last spring that the US deploy its MIM-104 Patriot anti-ballistic missile system, as well as the Iron Dome, on its territory.
From the Ukrainians’ perspective, there is no reason to rush for the exit.
Over the past two days, Daniel Aharon has reached out to 125 lone soldiers in the IDF who came from Ukraine, offering his organization’s help in case they wish to bring their families to Israel in light of the precarious situation in Ukraine.
While Russia may receive some tough words and even sanctions, world nations are getting out of Ukraine as fast as possible.
The unfolding Ukraine crisis illustrates how major Western governments are dealing with the chances for a conflict between a near-peer rival of the United States and another large country. In this sense, it paints a picture of how future conflicts may unfold.
The new deployments include artillery, reconnaissance troops and medics from units throughout Germany, with arrivals expected to continue throughout this week.
A German military aircraft carrying troop reinforcements landed at Lithuania’s Kaunas airport on Monday, a Reuters eyewitness said, the first of several planned deployments amid fears in the region over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.