UK to send 350 more troops to Poland amid Russia-NATO tensions
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The UK seems adamant on involving itself in the NATO-fuelled military crisis.
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The Polish defense minister said that the additional UK troops would help boost Polish armed forces’ security.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced on Monday that the UK is going to send 350 additional troops to Poland, an extra number to the 100 British military engineers that were deployed last year during the migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarussian border.
In a press conference with his Polish counterpart, Wallace said, "We will add to those 100 engineers by sending a further 350 British troops to Poland as a bilateral deployment to show that we can work together and send a strong signal that Britain and Poland stand side by side."
The UK defense minister added that the United Kingdom and Poland did the right thing by meeting to talk about what they can do to prevent Russia's "foolish mistake" of invading Ukraine.
"At this time when there is real anxiousness about the activity of Russia towards Ukraine and on Europe’s eastern borders … it is absolutely right that two of Europe’s closest allies meet to discuss what we could do to deter Russia and any further steps being taken," he stressed.
Through an interpreter, the Polish defense minister said that the additional UK troops would help boost Polish armed forces’ security, "especially when it comes to threats on the border."
Just a couple of days after 2,000 US troops landed in Europe to "assist" Kiev against Russia, London has also pitched in, sending more than 100 of its special forces advisors to the Ukrainian capital to train and aid the Ukrainian military.
The US military put 8,500 troops on high alert for a possible deployment to Europe, according to Pentagon.
The US decision is a bid to increase tensions with Russia amid the crisis with Ukraine, as talks between Washington and Moscow failed to result in de-escalation. The US hopes NATO allies would feel reassured by this move which aims at shoring up NATO's eastern flank.
The United States is increasingly militarizing Eastern Europe, under the pretext that Russia is preparing for military operations in Ukraine.
Russia denies any such plans and demands comprehensive security guarantees, including a NATO pledge never to allow Ukraine to join it.
