The U.S. and its allies are continuing to negotiate with Russia to stop the standoff over Ukraine’s borders from escalating. They are also preparing for war and clearly intend to deter any Russian invasion. After flying to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, the French President Emmanuel Macron met the President of Ukraine on Tuesday.
Macron stated that the standoff between Russia and Macron could continue for “weeks or months.”
In the midst of all the diplomacy, NATO has increased its presence around Ukraine and the Western military alliance holds war games to try to stop a Russian attack.
Charlie D’Agata, a senior correspondent for CBS News’ foreign news, watched as British and Estonian tanks fought each other on Tuesday in a simulation battle in northern Estonia. The event took place near the Russian border.
This military exercise is in direct response to Russia’s massive military buildup on Ukraine’s three sides, which has caused jitters throughout the region.
The NATO war games are becoming more urgent as Russia prepares for massive combat exercises at sea and land.
If there were a larger conflict at the eastern edge of Europe’s democracies and the NATO training ground in Lasna (Estonia) was to be used, troops would find the exact conditions they are looking for: Deep snow, difficult terrain, limited visibility, and difficult terrain.
They would also be facing an enemy far more powerful than NATO’s forces in both troops as well as weaponry.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are located right next to Russia’s borders. A multinational NATO battlegroup is located in each of these three countries.
American reinforcements were deployed to Lithuania and Poland, as well as to Romania. Moscow sent tens to thousands of troops to Belarus to conduct drills in support of its military buildup.
At a news conference held Wednesday, Gitanas Nauseda, the President of Lithuania, stated that his country would talk to the U.S. “to make sure that the U.S. rotational forces will be in Lithuania permanent.”
He stated, “That would be a best boost to security, deterrence, and NATO could provide, both to Lithuanians, as well as to the entire region.”
There is still hope for a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis.
Moscow indicated Wednesday that Putin’s government was still trying to determine how to respond to U.S. offers to ease tension, but Sergey Ryabkov, deputy foreign minister, said that the Kremlin had at most “taken seriously” these ideas.
The negotiations will continue as normal, but war games are also continuing, since military preparations never assume a worst-case scenario.