US President Joe Biden says the country will deploy
additional troops and equipment to Baltic members of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO) in Eastern Europe.
The development is coming hours after Russian President
Vladimir Putin reportedly ordered troops into two breakaway regions in eastern
Ukraine.
NATO is currently made up of 30 member countries, including
the US.
The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — are the
only ex-soviet countries to have joined the European Union (EU) and NATO —
which Ukraine aims to join.
Although an imminent attack on the Baltic states hasn’t been
declared, the three countries are said to be concerned about Russia’s ability
to cut them off from the rest of Europe via the Polish-Lithuanian border, said
to be one of NATO’s most vulnerable points.
Speaking on Tuesday at a media briefing, Biden said the
“United States will continue to provide defensive assistance to Ukraine in the
meantime”, adding that the US will also “continue to reinforce and reassure our
NATO allies”.
“Today, in response to Russia’s admission that it will not
withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorised additional movements of US
forces and equipment already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic
Allies – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,” he said.
“Let me be clear
these are totally defensive moves on our part. We have no intention of fighting
Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message that the United States together
with our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments
we made it to NATO.
“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. So
I’m going to begin to impose sanctions in response — far beyond the steps we
and our allies and partners implemented in 2014.”
Biden also said the US is implementing sanctions on two
Russian financial institutions, adding that sanctions would also be imposed on
Russia’s elites and their family members.
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