Message to Russia:US,UK Bulking Up NATO'S Eastern Flank

In a matter of days,US and British forces will be reinforcing key NATO Allies in the Baltic and Black Sea Regions.On 2 February 2022,the Pentagon announced that,as ordered by US President Joseph R. Biden,3,000 US troops would be heading mostly to Poland and Romania;while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated earlier that the UK would be bolstering its troop presence in Estonia by about 900,on top of the 900 Soldiers already there leading a NATO enhancedForward Presence Battle Group.As well,the UK intends to send warships and fighter jets to the Eastern Flank. The US Air Force has already augmented NATO's Air Policing Mission in Estonia with six F-15 Eagle fighters from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base,North Carolina's 336th Fighter Squadron,and the Harry S.Truman Carrier Strike Group has been leading Exercise Neptune Strike 22 in the Mediterranean Sea. The new US deployment will be separate from the 8500 troops in the US recently placed on high alert for call-up by the NATO Response Force.Two thousand of the newly designated troops will be sent from the US to Poland and Romania,US Army paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division and 18th Airborne Corps.A small headquarters unit will reportedly be sent to Germany.In addition,a 1,000 member US Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment Stryker Brigade Combat Team already in Germany will be deployed to Romania.These deployments have been under discussion with the NATO Allies concerned for some time. A Stryker BCT is a mechanised infantry brigade centered around the Stryker eight-wheeled variant of the General Dynamics LAV III,which is a light armoured vehicle.* Spain has detailed a minesweeper and frigate to augment NATO'S Standing Maritime Group 2;while France is sending Soldiers to Romania as well.* The rationale of the US and British deployments were articulated by UK officials in recent days.On 1 February 2022,British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke at a news conference in Kyiv,Ukraine alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: we will always stand up for freedom and democracy and Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of aggression.Somebody said we are exaggerating the threat-were the UK and the US trying to big this up? I've just got to say that is not the intelligence we're seeing.This is a clear and present danger and we see large numbers of troops massing;we see preparations for all kinds of operations that are consistent with an imminent military campaign...it is about the whole European security architecture,because be in no doubt about what I think President Putin is trying to achieve here.I think he is trying,by holding a gun,as it were,to the head of Ukraine,to get us to change the way we look at somerthing that was absolutely fantastic.And it wouldn't just be Ukraine that was drawn back into the Russian sphere of influence;you've got to think about Georgia;you've got to think about Moldova,other countries.I've just got to repeat what I said:our view is that time is urgent and this is something that needs to be addressed now.* The UK Chief of Defence Staff,Royal Navy Admiral Sir Tony Radakin,told a Cabinet meeting on 1 February that: a significant proportion of Russia's land combat power was now gathered on the Western border,coupled with deterrence operations such as military exercises on a scale never seen before.* Prime Minister Johnson informed the Cabinet that this: fitted into a pattern of coercion and intimidation that sought to undermine the values and principles of the West.*