WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden declared “total” unity among Western powers yesterday after crisis talks with European leaders on deterring Russia from an attack against Ukraine and 8,500 US troops were put on standby for possible deployment to boost Nato.
“I had a very, very, very good meeting – total unanimity with all the European leaders,” Biden told reporters shortly after finishing a one hour and 20 minute video conference with allied leaders from Europe and Nato.
In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office also said “the leaders agreed on the importance of international unity in the face of growing Russian hostility”.
German Chancellor Olf Scholz said “it is up to Russia to undertake visible de-escalation”, while Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of “severe costs” if there is “any further aggression” by Moscow against Ukraine.
Also on the call were the leaders of France, Italy, Poland, and the European Union.
Despite insisting he has no intention of attacking, President Vladimir Putin has deployed some 100,000 troops close to Ukraine, where Russia already seized Crimea in 2014 and backs a separatist army in the east.
Moscow is demanding a guarantee that Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, never be allowed to join Nato, as well as other concessions by the United States in return for a decrease in tension.
The US and Nato have rejected the Russian demands and told Putin to withdraw from Ukraine’s borders, warning that a Russian attack will trigger damaging economic sanctions, as well as a beefed-up Nato presence in eastern Europe.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said a force of up to 8,500 US troops was on “heightened alert” for potential deployment to reinforce any activation of the Nato Response Force in the region, where there are growing fears of spillover from the Ukraine conflict.
“What this is about...is reassurance to our Nato allies,” Kirby said. “It sends a very clear signal to Mr Putin that we take our responsibilities to Nato seriously.”
Nato also said it was sending jets and ships to bolster its eastern flank.
The tension helped fuel instability in global markets, while Russia’s main stock index plunged and the central bank suspended foreign currency purchasing after the ruble slumped.
The French government announced that Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet, along with French and German counterparts, in Paris tomorrow to try to find a way out of the impasse. – AFP, January 25, 2022
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