West risks Russian ire with plans to deploy 4,000 troops on Europe’s south-eastern borders 

Western defence ministers are set to meet in Brussels today to discuss plans to reinforce eastern Europe with more NATO troops despite Russia‘s apparent willingness to withdraw from the border with Ukraine.

The plan would see four fresh battlegroups of 1,000 troops deploy along the alliance’s eastern front, firstly in Romania, in a move that directly contravenes Russia’s security demand that the West reduces its military presence along its border.

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the proposal is being drawn up due to Russia’s recent aggression near Ukraine and its ‘lasting impact of the security situation in Europe’.

But there are fears that the plans will anger Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, just as Moscow has declared it does not want a war in Ukraine and began withdrawing armoured vehicles from the frontline.

The planned deployment of up to 4,000 NATO troops marks the alliance’s biggest show of aggression towards Russia in six years.  

The plans come as an extension of a 2016 agreement which saw the alliance deploy battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The new deployment would be led primarily by France, who would install troops in Romania, and a NATO-commanded Bulgarian battle group in Bulgaria.   

Stoltenberg said: ‘NATO is not only responding to the current crisis but we are also going to consider more long-term adjustments to our posture in the east.

‘Defence ministers will address the need to further increase our defensive posture… it will take some time until we have all the decisions in place.’

Some NATO countries are reluctant to host allied battlegroups however, with Hungarian President Viktor Orban and Defence Minister Tibor Benko recently declining to accept troops.

Hungary enjoys relatively strong relations with Russia despite being a member state of NATO, and is heavily reliant on Moscow for its supply of gas, as well as technical and financial support with its nuclear energy programme.  

Nevertheless, Western defence ministers are expected to give the green light to military commanders who will come up with a detailed plan for the strategic deployment of the four new battle groups.

The move could give Moscow cause for alarm as it would signal to Putin that NATO has no plans to consider Russia’s security demands – a key obstacle to calming tensions between the East and the West. 

In a list of contentious demands submitted in December, Russian authorities requested guarantees from NATO and Western powers that Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations would not be admitted to the alliance.

Moscow also demanded that NATO halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

The US, UK and Western allies have offered to engage Russia in talks on how to reach a mutually agreed upon security deal.

But the plans set to be discussed today in Brussels would clearly signal a rejection of some of Moscow’s most important demands. 

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe and added that Russia is open to discuss ‘some of those elements,’ but insisted it would do so only in combination ‘with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.’

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesn’t want it but that Ukraine’s bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country and that Western leaders had not yet given a constructive response on the matter.

‘Of course we don’t want war,’ the President said. ‘This is exactly why we put forward the proposal to start the negotiation process where the result should be an agreement ensuring equal security of everyone, including our country.

‘Unfortunately there was no constructive response to this proposal.’ 

Footage emerged today of Russian armoured vehicles being withdrawn from Crimea and Southern Russia where they were engaged in large scale military drills, with Russian authorities assuring that troops are being pulled back from Ukraine’s borders.

But the apparent military scale-back is being treated with extreme scepticism in the West, where intelligence agencies suspect is could be part of a ruse to launch a smaller military operation in the regions of Eastern Ukraine where Russian separatists are fighting.   

US President Joe Biden said Russia’s claims of withdrawal ‘would be good, but we have not yet verified that.’ 

‘Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position.’ 

‘Ukraine is not threatening Russia. Neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not, do not have plans to put them there as well. We are not targeting the people of Russia. We do not seek to destabilise Russia.’

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Putin of sending mixed messages, and said: ‘The intelligence we are seeing today is still not encouraging. You have got more battalion tactical groups being brought closer to the border. What everybody needs to see is a programme of de-escalation.’

Ukraine also expressed scepticism about Russia’s statements of a pullback.

‘We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation,’ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Stoltenberg said that ‘so far, we have not seen any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine,’ adding that the alliance wants to see a ‘significant and enduring withdrawal’ of forces, troops and heavy equipment.