US MilitaryWASHINGTON Jan 24US President Joe Biden is considering deploying thousands of US troops, ships and aircraft to the Baltics and Eastern Europe amid the situation around Ukraine, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed administration officials. According to the publication, on Saturday, senior Pentagon officials presented Biden with several options actions. Among them is the dispatch of 1,000 to 5,000 servicemen to Eastern European countries with the possibility of a «ten-fold increase» in their number if the situation worsens. Former and current military officials said that it could be air defense forces, artillery, engineering troops and logistics fighters. Biden could make a decision as early as this week, anonymous sources told the New York Times. According to them, in this case, part of the military will be transferred from the United States, the rest — from other parts of Europe. So far, none of the options being considered include sending troops to Ukraine.
Administration officials also expressed the view that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to avoid such a move by the United States.
Le Figaro: NATO is preparing for a «war» with Russia in the BalticsRussia has repeatedly rejected accusations of «aggressive actions», emphasizing that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone. Tensions in the region are being fueled by the United States and other countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, which have increased the number of exercises in the Black Sea. As Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted earlier, NATO is increasing arms supplies to Ukraine, where the number of Western instructors has increased. According to the diplomat, this could provoke the Ukrainian authorities «to military adventures,» which poses a direct threat to Russia's security. Kiev sent half of the entire personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the Donbass, the department noted. Moscow believes that the West is trying to create a group of troops near the Russian borders. At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. Moscow, in particular, demands from its Western partners legal guarantees of refusing further expansion of NATO to the east, from joining the Ukrainian bloc and from establishing military bases in post-Soviet countries. On January 10, Russia and the United States held a round of dialogue on strategic stability in Geneva. It was followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels and consultations at the Vienna site of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The main focus of discussions was the proposals of the Russian side.