On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to compare the Russian military to an uncoiling snake preparing to strike Ukraine after a massive military buildup fueled the biggest East-West crisis since the cold War.
Austin, speaking while on a trip to Lithuania, said he agreed with President Joe Biden’s assessment Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to stage a new invasion of Ukraine.
“They are unfolding and now ready to strike,” Austin told a news conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, ahead of talks with increasingly anxious Baltic leaders.
Austin, a retired army general, warned that Moscow could move to Ukraine at any time and listed the types of military capabilities Russia has gathered and repositioned near Ukraine.
“Having done this before, I can tell you this is exactly what you need to attack and the position you need to be in to attack,” Austin said.
Moscow, which has massed tens of thousands of troops near the border with Ukraine and is pressuring US and NATO security demands, has denied plans to invade its neighbor.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he feared that if the Kremlin was ready to take Ukraine, Moscow would then target the Baltic states and Poland.
“The battle for Ukraine is a battle for Europe. If he doesn’t stop there, he will go further,” Landsbergis said, calling for military strategy in the region to shift from trying to deter Russia from attacking to preparing to defend against an attack. .
Austin vowed that Washington would stand by its Baltic allies, but declined to know if he would respond to Lithuanian calls for additional troops.
“I want everyone in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to know – and I want President (Vladimir) Putin in the Kremlin to know – that the United States stands with our allies,” Austin said during a a press conference in Vilnius, after talks. with Lithuanian leaders.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement after meeting Austin: “It is extremely important to strengthen regional security (of the Baltic States) with additional troops from the United States and to accelerate cooperation in military supply. “.
Since 2019, the United States has deployed rotating groups of around 500 troops and equipment to Lithuania, and in his statement, Nauseda called on Washington to make this a permanent deployment.
Estonian Defense Minister Kalle Laanet, who also met Austin in Vilnius, said he had asked the United States to send fighter jets to the Baltic states to defend their skies.
The three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were once ruled from Moscow, but are now part of NATO and the European Union. They do not operate their own fighter jets.
NATO allies have kept several jet planes in the area as part of a rotating air policing mission since 2004.
PRESSURE FROM RUSSIA
Austin praised Lithuania for resisting pressure from Russia, whose military build-up has included sending tens of thousands of troops to Belarus – neighboring Lithuania – for joint drills due to end on Sunday .
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said her country believed Russian troops in Belarus could stay there for an extended period.
“We can say with great certainty that we will not see (Russian) troops withdrawing quickly, if at all,” she told reporters.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met Putin on Friday, saying soldiers could stay as long as needed.
Simonyte said if Russian troops remained, it could put pressure on the Baltics’ only land connection with the rest of the European Union, a narrow strip of land between Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad known as the Corridor name of Suwalki.
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