NATO mulling plans to position equipment on eastern flank
Zagan, Poland (dpa) -- NATO defence ministers are due next week to consider positioning military equipment along the bloc's eastern lank, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, following reports that the United States is preparing to move heavy weapons to the region.
Stoltenberg was speaking at a large-scale exercise in Poland aimed at readying troops for a potential threat from Russia.
NATO is bolstering its presence in Eastern Europe to deter potential aggressors and reassure its allies in response to events in Ukraine, where Russia has been condemned for annexing Crimea and allegedly supporting pro-Moscow separatists.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the United States is preparing to move battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons into Baltic and Eastern European countries as a deterrent to possible Russian aggression.
Moscow, in turn, accused NATO of dragging the country into a new arms race and announced plans on Tuesday to increase its nuclear arsenal with new ballistic missiles.
"No decision has been taken [on the pre-positioning of equipment]," Stoltenberg said Thursday, adding, "It is going to be addressed next week at a defence ministers' meeting."
Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said he had discussed the issue with his US counterpart Ashton Carter during a visit to Washington last month.
"We were talking about equipment that is sufficient for one brigade, and it will be pre-positioned in five member states," Siemoniak said, adding that he expects Washington to make a decision "over the next few weeks."
German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen gave her support to the US plan, calling it an "appropriate, defensive measure."
"For many years we have profited, during 60 years of NATO, from the fact that the Americans protected us in Germany too," said Von der Leyen, who was also visiting the NATO drill in Poland.
The 10-day exercise, codenamed Noble Jump, includes 2,100 troops from nine NATO countries. The rapid-response force was summoned to the western Polish town of Zagan and told to defend the region against aggressors from the fictitious country of Bothnia.
"The exercise was about NATO's reaction to hybrid threats," Siemoniak said. Moscow has been accused of non-traditional warfare techniques, relying on intelligence, propaganda and other non-conventional operations, during the Ukraine crisis.
The NATO exercise included enemy forces bearing no clear insignia, similar to the so-called "green men" that Moscow has been accused of deploying in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
"I am impressed by what I have seen," Stoltenberg said of the exercise, which was the first deployment of NATO's so-called spearhead force.
Nuland: Russia Missile Plan Has 'Rattling Effect," Reality Less Dramatic
A senior U.S. State Department official on June 18 played down an announcement by Russia that it will add tens of new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal.
Victoria Nuland, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European affairs, told reporters on a visit to the Czech capital, Prague, "Those kinds of announcements when made publicly like that obviously have a rattling effect."
"When we look at what is actually happening inside Russia, it is far less dramatic," she said, commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of the plan on June 16.
Putin said June 16 that Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.
But on June 17, the Kremlin said Russia does not want to enter a costly new arms race with the West, saying it would hurt the country’s economy.
"We are against any arms race because it naturally weakens our economic capabilities,” presidential aide Yury Ushakov said on June 17. “In principle we are against it."
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
UN Says Russia Led World In 2014 Asylum Claims Due To Ukraine War
By RFE/RL
A United Nations report says Russia was the world’s largest single recipient of asylum requests during 2014 as a result of the war in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists.
The report by the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, says a total of 271,200 Ukrainians lodged applications for refugee status or temporary asylum in Russia since the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine -- about 99 percent of the asylum claims in Russia during 2014.
By comparison, the UNHCR reported data from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service that says 823,000 people became internally displaced within Ukraine by the end of 2014 as a result of the conflict in the east.
About 19,000 Ukrainians also filed asylum requests in 67 other countries.
The most were in Germany with 2,700 claims, followed by Poland and Italy with 2,100, and France with 1,400.
Kyiv says three soldiers killed:
The Ukrainian military says three of its soldiers have been killed and 14 wounded in fighting in the country’s east.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on June 18 that the casualties occurred during the previous 24 hours.
"Clashes aren't getting any less frequent and in certain parts they are turning into full-scale military operations," he added.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has killed more than 6,400 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
In recent weeks, the sides have accused each other of increasing attacks despite a cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in February. (Reuters, Interfax)