Russia will pay a high price for any new military aggression against Ukraine. NATO and the United States warned on Tuesday (November 30) that the foreign ministers of the alliance will hold a two-day meeting in Riga, the capital of Latvia, to discuss Moscow’s intention to build up troops on the border.
To make matters worse, Belarus announced on Monday (November 29) that it would hold a joint military exercise with Russia on its border with Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken told reporters before the meeting that the movement of the Russian army was “unusual”, adding that any escalation by Russia would cause Washington to “highly pay attention.”
Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia’s military build-up near the Ukrainian border “unprovoked and unexplainable” and reiterated his call for Moscow to maintain transparency and ease tensions in the region, implying Moscow imposed sanctions.
Stoltenberg said: “If Russia uses force again to oppose Ukraine’s independence, they will pay a high price.”
Moscow refuted Ukraine’s remarks that it was preparing to launch an attack as inflammatory, saying it would not threaten anyone and defending its right to deploy troops on its own territory as it pleases.
As NATO ministers gathered in Riga, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at a forum in Moscow on Tuesday, saying that the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure in Ukraine is a red line he hopes will not be crossed.
“If some kind of strike system appeared on Ukrainian territory, the flight time to Moscow would be 7-10 minutes, and if hypersonic weapons were deployed, it would be 5 minutes-imagine,” Putin said.
“(In Ukraine) creating such a threat constitutes a red line for us,” he added.
His Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of deploying a large number of military equipment near the Russian border and said that Moscow will respond to security threats from Western countries and Ukraine when necessary.
Brinken is expected to brief his colleagues on Washington’s intelligence related to the developing situation.
He told reporters: “Any escalation in Russia will cause great concern from the United States (…), and any re-launch of aggression will cause serious consequences.”
“We will be in close consultation with NATO allies and partners in the coming days… as to whether we as an alliance should take other steps to strengthen our defenses, increase our resilience, and enhance our capabilities,” he added .
Brinken also mentioned the so-called attempted coup in Kiev by the Ukrainian President. Volodmir Zelensky I have been warned recently. The president marked it as an example, which fits the typical Russian “Moscow script “to create provocation and use it as an excuse for interference”.
In addressing Eastern Europe’s concerns about the security of NATO’s east wing, Brinken raised expectations that military support for these countries might be increased.
In the next two days, NATO foreign ministers will discuss “as an alliance, whether we should take further measures to strengthen our security,” Brinken said.
“Our commitment to Baltic Sea security and Article 5 is rock solid,” he added.
Before the meeting, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabrix told Reuters Will “need additional international support”.
“We want the United States to have a permanent presence in our country,” Pabrix said. According to him, this mainly means deploying the Patriot air defense system.
Last week, Polish President Andrzej Duda called for the strengthening of NATO air policing to strengthen “strategic surveillance” of the region, which has been implemented in the Baltic States since 2014.
NATO currently has so-called battle groups in Poland and the three Baltic countries, which rotate regularly, and each battle group consists of approximately 1,200 soldiers.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
