Russia is ready to attack Ukraine
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday likened the Russian military to a snake as it prepares for a sharp blow to Ukraine after a massive military buildup that sparked an East-West crisis in Europe with a temporary Cold War.
Austin, speaking for the time in Lithuania, said the trip agreed with President Joe Biden’s assessment that Vladimir Putin appears to have made the decision to send a new invasion of Ukraine. Biden said this on Friday.
“They are intensifying and now the blows are sharply expressed,” Austin said at a press conference in the Lithuanian parliament in Vilnius before negotiations with the leaders of the Baltic states.
Austin, a retired army general, warned that Moscow could launch an offensive against Ukraine at any time and listed the types of military force that Russia has concentrated and redeployed in areas facing Ukraine.
“Given my expected experience, I can tell you that this is exactly what is required to carry out arrests,” Austin said.
Moscow, which has focused on tens of thousands of countries near Ukraine’s borders and is making security claims to the US and NATO, denying it has any plans to invade a neighboring country.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis insists that if the Kremlin demands a takeover of Ukraine, Moscow will next target the Baltic states and Poland.
“The battle for Ukraine is a battle for Europe. If he [Путин] will not stop there, he will go further,” Landsbergis said, urging military industrial strategists to stop spending to talk Russia out of the attacks and prepare to defend against it.
Austin is demanding that Washington stand by its Baltic allies, but has responded whether it has responded to Lithuania’s call for more troops.
“I want the president to let everyone in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia know, and I want Putin in the Kremlin to report that the speed reports of our allies,” Austin said at a press conference in Vilnius after a conference with Lithuanian leaders.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said after meeting with Austin: “It is extremely important to strengthen regional security [стран Балтии] mobilization of troops from the compound and increased cooperation in military procurement areas”.
at the beginning of 2019.
Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet, who also met with Austin in Vilnius, said he demanded
Baltic States to protect air security. None of the Baltic states has its own fighters.
Since 2004, NATO allies have kept several aircraft on air patrol missions.
Austin praised Lithuania for resisting pressure from Russia, which has sent tens of thousands of troops to Belarus, Lithuania’s neighbor, to take part in a joint exercise due to close on Sunday.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said her country believes Belarus’ Russian troops could remain there for an extended period of time.
“We can say with great confidence that we will not see a quick exit [российских] troops, if we see one at all,” she told reporters.
President Alexander Lukashenko met with Putin in Belarus, saying that Russian soldiers stay in the country “only as needed.”
Simonyte said that if Russian troops return, it could put pressure on the Baltic states’ only land transmission with Switzerland and supplies, a narrow strip between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region, known as the Suwalki Gap.