The Atlantic Alliance and Washington have tripled their presence in the countries bordering Russia since Moscow chose to occupy the Crimean peninsula
Until February 24, the sanity with which every human mind is supposed to be endowed allowed us to venture that a war of great intensity was impossible to repeat in Europe after the apocalypse of values that man demonstrated during the fratricidal confrontation in the former Yugoslavia. . But that day Vladimir Putin and his dream of going down in history by taking us back to the empire of the tsars showed that we are incapable of learning from mistakes.
Three weeks later barbarism and unreason reign. Any grotesque scenario can already be accepted by those brains that initially believed themselves incredulous at the start of a warlike conflict of the conditions that are supported in Ukraine. Therefore, we are even willing to check the possibility that this disaster could go one step further and lead to an open contest between Russia and NATO.
Even not despising the possibility of using atomic bombs? We are talking about a scenario that, once again, brains try to rule out so that Albert Einstein’s prediction is not confirmed when he predicted that if the nuclear arsenal is used in this hypothetical third world war, the fourth “will be carried out with stones” although perhaps there wouldn’t be anyone left to throw them away.
Putin’s insanity seems to have been demonstrated and so does the fear of the Atlantic Alliance, whose military committee – made up of the thirty member chiefs of staff – has tripled its potential in eastern and southeastern Europe in a preventive manner. Ruled out a direct presence in Ukraine, he advocates strengthening its presence in the territories of partners close to Russia.
Four combat groups
It already took a first step in this direction in 2014 after the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula, when air and sea deployments were increased. But it was at the 2016 summit in Warsaw that it was decided to establish a reinforced forward presence in the Eastern bloc.
Since 2017, NATO has maintained four multinational combat groups (Battlegroups) -the size of a battalion of 1,000 soldiers each- in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which joined the local troops within the ‘Reinforced Forward Presence Operation’ .
Forces from Albania, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain contribute to the Canadian-led battle group in Adazi, Latvia.
At the Rukla base (Lithuania), Belgium, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway make up the contingent led by Germany. Denmark, France and Iceland lend soldiers to the unit led by the United Kingdom in Tapa (Estonia), while Croatia, Romania and Great Britain are part of the group led by the United States in Orzysz (Poland). These four battalions are in charge of protecting the borders of the allies in the East.
To this should be added the alerting of the reaction force made up of 40,000 troops divided into various elements, including the very high availability or spearhead (VJTF, for its acronym in English). In early February, it reinforced its eastern flank with 5,000 troops and six command and control centers.
advanced contingent
At the Warsaw summit, member states further agreed to develop a forward and tailored presence on the southeastern front. Its ground section is headquartered at a multinational brigade headquarters in Craiova, Romania. The Alliance also anticipates further increases with the commissioning of new multinational battalions in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.
Cash
The White House has a contingent in the area made up of thousands of soldiers, vehicles and aircraft
In addition to the ground deployment, there is also an air and sea presence. In this sense, NATO has fighter jets deployed in the three Baltic republics to control their airspace. The mission has two locations: Siauliai (Lithuania) and Ämari (Estonia). In Romania, Alliance aircraft have been carrying out Air Police tasks for a couple of years. This mission will also be extended to Bulgaria.
At the same time, the organization led by Jens Stoltenberg has displaced warships, including part of the US VI Fleet, whose center of activity until now has been in the Mediterranean. In the waters of the East, the permanent group number 1 is in charge of controlling the North Sea and the Baltic. The 2 controls the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Along with its participation in NATO groups, the United States Army has a deployment made up of more than 6,000 soldiers, 2,700 vehicles -including battle tanks, armored vehicles…- and some 60 aircraft -fighters, transport planes, helicopters …-. Joe Biden approved a few days ago an additional contribution of 3,000 soldiers in Poland, Germany and Romania, with another 8,500 on high alert.
Its fighter jets are deployed in Latvia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The ground troops, in Romania, Bulgaria and four military bases in Poland (Skwierzyna, Zagan, Swietoszow and Boleslawiec). In addition, in Germany there is the largest reserve of US troops in Europe, with more than 30,000 troops.
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