Russia Ukraine war, page-511

US, NATO double down on war threats against Russia over Ukraine

Events are exposing the threats and lies that the NATO powers are using to launch a war drive against Russia. Yesterday, the date US officials had said would see the beginning of Russia’s conquest of Ukraine, came and went without any Russian invasion whatsoever, and Russia in fact pulled back units deployed along its border with Ukraine for military exercises.

NATO officials nevertheless stepped up military deployments to Eastern Europe and repeated their empty accusations that Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine.

NATO defense ministers prepared to meet the Ukrainian and Georgian defense ministers today. Stoltenberg also pledged to move ahead with plans to permanently station NATO battle groups in Eastern Europe and ensure NATO nuclear weapons are ready for use.

“We have deployed more troops, planes, and ships to the eastern part of the Alliance, increased the readiness of our NATO Response Force, and boosted our battle groups in the Baltic region,” he said, adding: “NATO defense ministers will address the need to further increase our defensive posture. And I welcome the offer by France to lead a new NATO battle group in Romania.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that Washington had seen “no meaningful pullback” of Russian troops. “On the contrary, we continue to see forces, especially forces that would be in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against Ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border,” he said, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “could pull the trigger.”

This hysterical language aims to distract from the discrediting of NATO’s concocted anti-Russian narrative, which has no basis in fact whatsoever, and to justify a reckless military buildup.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/02/17/nato-f17.html