Russia slams US troops deployment, says it escalates tensions in Europe
Russia has urged the United States to stop escalating tensions over Ukraine after Washington announced it will be deploying several thousand troops to Eastern Europe.
“It's obvious that these are not steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, but on the contrary they are actions that lead to increasing tension,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
The US announced on Wednesday that it would deploy nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland, Germany and Romania. The US has already placed 8,500 troops on heightened alert to prepare for deployment in Eastern Europe and bolster NATO's presence in the region.
“We constantly call on our American counterparts to stop aggravating tensions on the European continent. Unfortunately, the Americans continue to do so,” Peskov said.
He said Moscow’s concerns over NATO’s eastward expansion are “absolutely clear, absolutely justified.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko also slammed Washington’s increasing military buildup near Russian borders as “destructive”, saying will diminish the likelihood of finding a political solution to the current standoff over Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already warned against US attempts to drag his country into a war, saying Washington is not concerned about the security of Ukraine.
President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are set to skip this year’s annual February 18-20 Munich Security Conference, a local newspaper reported.
Western powers accuse Russia of amassing troops near the Ukrainian border to invade the country. Moscow rejects the allegations and says the deployments are defensive in nature.
Kremlin officials accuse the West of Russiophobia, saying it has no right to lecture Moscow on how to act after its eastward expansion and sowing seeds of chaos and mayhem in Iraq and Syria.
Russia has repeatedly reiterated that the expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine is a red line for Moscow and that any future expansion must exclude Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.
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