The United States says that Russia has added as many as 7,000 troops to its forces stationed along the tense border with Ukraine.
A Ukrainian serviceman walks to a frontline position outside Popasna, the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. Ukrainians defied pressure from Moscow with a national show of flag-waving unity Wednesday, while the West warned that it saw no sign of a promised pullback of Russian troops from Ukraine's borders despite Kremlin declarations of a withdrawal.
Moscow said several times this week that some forces are pulling back to their bases, but it gave virtually no details that would allow for an independent assessment of the scope and direction of the troop movement, and Western leaders quickly cast doubt on those statements. On Thursday, NATO allies knocked down the Russian assertions again — and warned that they are ready to counter any aggression.
The U.S. has started to deploy 5,000 troops to Poland and Romania. A further 8,500 more are on standby. Britain is sending hundreds of soldiers to Poland, offering more warships and planes, and doubling the number of personnel in Estonia. Germany, the Netherlands and Norway are sending additional troops to Lithuania. Denmark and Spain are providing jets for air policing in the Baltic Sea region.
An observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is expected to offer its assessment of the situation later Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted Thursday that some NATO members don't want the country to join.“Not all members of the alliance want Ukraine in NATO,” he said without naming specific countries. “It's not the Ukrainian people's choice when we will be there, because it doesn't only depend on us — 30 countries must reach consensus on that decision.”
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was sending its formal reply on those issues to the U.S. and NATO later Thursday and will make it public.Even as Russia seemed to try to ease tensions this week, the Western allies maintained that the threat of an attack remained high.
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