Alwaght- While Russia finds any Western military activities on its borders a threat to its national security and warns about its consequences, the NATO inattentively takes a more offensive gesture every day. On Monday, its Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that combat units of the Western military alliance will be reinforced in Eastern Europe and it will increase it combat-ready forces to 300,000.
Presently, the number of NATO "rapid reaction forces" is about 40,000, which is set to increase seven folds. According to the decision, the various units of the NATO member states will be placed on different levels of readiness in order to increase the number of troops ready for operations. Also, according to NATO's new position, Russia will be recognized a direct threat to Western security rather than a NATO's strategic partner.
NATO's new plan comes after G7 members at a summit in Germany promised strong support for Ukraine and said they would send arms to Kiev as long as the war continues. The deployment of new troops to Europe is said to be the largest deployment since the Cold War. In other words, with the new scenario, NATO members intend to turn the countries in Eastern Europe and those neighboring Russia into a military stronghold against Moscow. Given that NATO force is a combination of the military forces of the member countries, the troops are sent from all nationalities and their programs, goals, and supplies of are under a united command. Given that they are being deployed in the current tense situation, they will only act to repel threats in critical conditions and do not serve in advisory role.
NATO offensive gesture against Russia comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin said recently that he will deploy nuclear missiles on Belarusian soil, a move strongly opposed by the US. By these measures, the West seems to seek to strike a balance with Russia in Europe. By deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus, Putin is warning Europeans that it is there for them with all its might and that if any country wants to flex its muscles to Russia, it will be punished with destructive weapons.
West's military assistance to Ukraine not grounding Putin
The deployment of tens of thousands of troops to Russia's borders can be examined from another aspect. Given that the Russians have made great strides on the battlefield in Ukraine in recent weeks, Western backers of Kiev seem to began to believe that arms aids alone were not sufficient to check the Russians and thus could not change the situation on the ground. Therefore, NATO members have decided to act through military units so that they may be able to force Russia to withdraw by increasing their forces.
As concerns about Russia's military action against the Baltic states, Finland, and Sweden in the future grow, NATO is stepping up its efforts to prevent Russians from doing so. Because Russia's attack on NATO member states is a declaration of war on NATO, and the presence of these forces can form a deterrence.
Washington has pursued a policy of increasing its forces in Ukraine and Eastern Europe since 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, but has been unable to implement the plan in practice due to Russian sensitivities and fears of military face-off. But the invasion of Ukraine provided an opportunity for it to strengthen its forces on Russia's borders, regardless of the Russian reactions. The deployment of tens of thousands of NATO troops on Russia's borders allows the Americans to closely monitor Russian movements.
As after the Ukraine conflict eruption, some talked about the likelihood of collapse of NATO, the bloc's members are trying to show off their unity and solidarity with each other to public and their allies around the world with new plans and accept new countries like Finland and Sweden to boost their weight against Russia.
The deployment of NATO rapid reaction units on Russia's borders could escalate tensions between the two sides and even lead to direct clashes. In response to Western moves, Russian National Security Council deputy head Dmitry Medvedev warned that any attack on the Crimean Peninsula would be a declaration of war against Moscow. If a NATO member does that, it is a conflict with the entire NATO and would mean World War III, Medvedev further warned.
Moscow has repeatedly said that increasing Western adventures near Russian borders could be a gate to World War III and ignite a nuclear war. The Western leaders, who have lost the initiative in the game with Russia in Ukraine, are trying to prevent Russia from similar attacks in other countries by strengthening their defenses in NATO member states. But as Russia strongly opposes Western force amassment in Europe, it may intensify its military operations on the Ukrainian front, as it has in recent days attacked Kiev. If the Russians conclude that in order to counter NATO's eastward development they must extend their security borders to the farthest reaches, then a complete occupation of Ukraine will not be unthinkable. Moscow officials have recently explicitly stated that Ukraine will be wiped from the map within two years. Therefore, the Russians have plans to take full control of the country, and the US and its allies' adventures will give them a pretext to put it into action.
The American and European warmongering actions that are feeding further tensions with Moscow leave no clear horizon for end of war in Ukraine, and the White House has no plan to end the war as it finds Ukraine field the best opportunity to realize its long-followed policy of weakening Russia militarily. Washington should take the consequences in its way to this goal. Russia, as it has shown in recent months, does not sit on its hands for defending its borders and can resort to force even if it has NATO in front of it.