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Transcript/Script Ukraine NATO Troops Ready
HEADLINE: High Alert: NATO Sends Troops, Warplanes East to Counter Russian Threat
TEASER: The deployment of alliance resources to border states is more for "preparedness" and "a defensive and deterrence capability," analyst says
PUBLISHED AT: 1/31/2022 at 5:30pm
BYLINE: Henry Ridgwell
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: London
VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Ridgwell
VIDEO EDITOR: Ridgwell
SCRIPT EDITORS: MAS, Reifenrath SR
VIDEO SOURCE (S): Reuters, APTN, Skype, Chatham House
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB _X_ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 2:51
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
TYPE: VPKGN
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO)) [[Several NATO member states are sending troops and hardware to allies in Eastern Europe as tensions with Russia escalate. The United States has put several thousand troops on alert. Moscow has over 100,000 troops amassed on the Ukraine border, and the West fears an imminent Russian invasion, which the Kremlin denies. Henry Ridgwell looks at what NATO’s military response means.]]
((NARRATOR))
A show of solidarity. Four Danish F-16 fighter jets landed in Lithuania last week to bolster NATO’s air policing mission in the Baltic.
Since Russia’s forceful annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO has deployed around 5-thousand troops in Eastern Europe — in what the alliance terms an "Enhanced Forward Presence."
The U.S. has put an additional 8,500 troops on standby.
((President Joe Biden))
“I'll be moving U.S. troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries in the near term.”
((NARRATOR))
France announced plans to deploy hundreds more troops to Romania, while Spain, the Netherlands and Germany are also considering sending more troops, aircraft and warships.
Britain has supplied around 2-thousand anti-tank weapons to Ukraine — and is expected to offer further deployments to NATO allies this week.
((Ben Wallace, British Defense Minister))
"I think it is important when it comes to military deployment that we signal to President [Vladimir] Putin that the very thing he fears, which is more NATO closer to Russia, would be the consequence of a strategic error of invading of a sovereign country such as Ukraine.”
NATO has no plans to deploy combat troops to Ukraine.
((Julie Norman, University College London Politics Lecturer))
((cf. Skype logo))
“Those NATO troops that are in those border states are really there more for and for preparedness and for a defensive and deterrence capability rather than expectation for direct conflict or direct combat.”
NATO says it is responding to Russian aggression. Moscow called the response "hysteria." Russia has around 100-thousand troops deployed close to the Ukrainian border. Thousands more arrived in Belarus for joint military exercises this week.
((Evelyn Farkas, Former U.S. Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia))
((cf. courtesy Chatham House))
“NATO itself has had to respond to a new threat Russia posed by putting additional forces into Belarus, which of course shares a border with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, which are NATO allies.”
NATO’s deployments could ratchet up tensions further with Russia’s president, says Norman.
((Julie Norman, University College London Politics Lecturer))
((cf. Skype logo))
“Putin's key demands in all of this is the drawdown of NATO troops and weaponry from those same eastern states. So, the fact that there is more buildup, that is going to be seen not as an act of defense, but an act of offense and provocation by Russia.”
Meanwhile, the flurry of diplomatic efforts to avoid war continues. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to visit Ukraine this week and hold talks on the phone with Russia’s president.
Henry Ridgwell, for VOA News, London.
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