Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Philip Breedlove, right, speaks with Czech Republic’s NATO-EU military representative Maj. Gen. Miroslav Zizka, center, prior to a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
As was expected, NATO defense ministers met today and agreed to a new round of military buildups in Eastern Europe, per-positioning equipment and rotating large numbers of troops into the nations along the Russian border as a “spearhead” to a future war against Russia.
The details are all still to be worked out, but the deal appears to be roughly in line with what was already discussed last week, with significant deployments but no “permanent” bases in the region, something the Baltic states and Poland in particular fought for.
The buildup began back in 2014, with the regime change in Ukraine leading to a new government extremely hostile toward the ethnic Russian minority, which sparked a civil war. NATO officials presented this as a prelude to a Russian invasion of Europe in general, though obviously this never happened.
In today’s talk, officials are still back in the 2014 mentality, with Lithuania’s Defense Minister citing the Russian Federation’s acceptance of Crimea’s petition for annexation back in 2014 as proof Russia “is a threat” that needs a military response.
Ukraine’s Civil War isn’t wholly resolved, but has been in a state of ceasefire since February of last year, with the major remaining dispute surrounding the Ukraine government’s refusal to allow the ethnic Russian east to hold local elections.