Denmark to bolster NATO numbers despite admitting no threat by Russia
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Although Danish politicians stressed that there is no military threat to NATO, Denmark says it will bolster its readiness to help NATO in response to Russia's operation.
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Denmark soldiers bid farewell to coalition forces aboard Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, May 19, 2014
Denmark has made the decision to increase its readiness to help NATO in a response to Russia's operation in Ukraine.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned the operation, calling it an "attack on peace on stability in Europe".
Even though the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Defense Minister all admitted that the operation poses no military threat to NATO or Denmark, the Danish government has made the decision to send two F-16s to Poland to protect its airspace, and has made a military transport aircraft and a mobile hospital available to NATO, according to Sputnik.
Denmark already has four F-16 aircraft in Lithuania to secure Baltic airspace, and two other fighter jets located on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic to repel "Russian activity" in the region. One frigate was also deployed to NATO's standing force while another was withdrawn from its mission so that it can potentially join NATO's reaction force.
The military force in the town of Slagelse was strengthened with an 800-strong battalion, which is able to join NATO forces within five days' notice, and another 200 soldiers will join NATO forces in Estonia.
Russia has for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened alongside an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.
“They [Ukraine] vowed not to advance NATO, they didn’t keep their promise, they say: 'We didn’t sign anything.' But we know when and to whom such promises, such assurances were given. Did they promise not to advance, for example, to the territory of the former Soviet Union? They promised it in private conversations. They did not fulfill the promise. And now they are already moving right onto our borders," Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev said on January 27.
Washington had secretly approved in January the sending of weapons to Ukraine, with Estonia also asking for US approval to provide the latter with lethal weapons. The same goes for Latvia and Lithuania. Meanwhile, Germany blocked an Estonian attempt to send German weapons to Ukraine, as part of its attempts to defuse tensions with Russia amid the anti-Russia hysteria being propagated by the US, which has spent $22 million since 2014 in Ukraine on anti-Russian narratives.
The US also sent 5,000 troops to Poland, and conducted NATO maneuvers in the Black Sea at Russia's borders.
