Putin should not fear ‘defensive’ NATO – US — Analysis

The US is sending more troops to Europe because of Russian “aggression,” the White House said
Russia should not view the addition of NATO troops to Eastern Europe in a provocative manner, but as an acceptable response. “aggression”John Kirby, the spokesperson of the US National Security Council said that the alliance was purely defensive and would be used in Ukraine.
Kirby was asked by Bloomberg’s Annmarie Hordern to comment on US President Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that more troops will be sent to Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, along with additional US planes and ships going elsewhere on the continent.
“There’s no reason that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin needs to view any force posture change on NATO’s eastern flank as a provocation. NATO is, will be, always has been a defensive alliance,” said Kirby.
“The reason we have to do this is because Mr Putin has been the destabilizing influence on the continent. Putin invaded a neighboring sovereign state. Mr Putin is the one who is the aggressor,”Kirby was also mentioned.
The retired US Navy admiral, who left his job as the Pentagon spokesman last month to move to the White House, also argued that while NATO wants the conflict in Ukraine to end, it’s up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “to determine when and where, [and] under what circumstances, the negotiations can even begin.”

NATO leaders offered Zelensky unconditional support for fighting and not to negotiate. “We make it very clear that this war can only be won on the battlefield,“Alexander De Croo was the Belgian Prime Minster.
Moscow has scoffed at NATO’s claims that it’s a purely defensive alliance, pointing to its track record over the past two decades, from the 1999 war against Yugoslavia to the 2011 regime change in Libya and the bombing of Syria in recent years.
“In futile attempts to justify their aggression against sovereign states, the collective West had to come up with exotic concepts, such as ‘humanitarian intervention,’ ‘war on terror,’ ‘preventive strikes’,” Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council earlier this month.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. These protocols, which were brokered by France and Germany, were signed for first time in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
The Kremlin recognised the Donbass republics in February 2022 as independent states. It demanded Ukraine declare itself neutral and not join any Western military bloc. Kiev claims that the Russian offensive wasn’t provoked.
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