British soldiers deployed to the Polish border with Belarus as Russian paratroopers carried out exercises on the opposite side. Two Russians are reported to have died.
The small forward party of British soldiers will help Polish forces strengthen their border with Belarus, where as many as 4,000 migrants, mainly from Iraq, Syria and Yemen, have gathered hoping to cross into Europe.
The deployment came as a pair of Russian TU-160 ‘Blackjack’ strategic bombers forced the RAF to defend British airspace.
The aircraft entered the NATO zone at a point for which the Netherlands is responsible without warning the Dutch.
Belgian F-16s escorted the Russian aircraft out of the area towards a zone policed by Britain, where they were met by a pair of RAF Typhoons from the Quick Reaction Alert force at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland.
Meanwhile, some 90,000 Russian troops are massed on the country’s borders with Ukraine, leading US President Joe Biden to warn European leaders of a possible invasion.
We don’t know Russia’s intentions. But we do know that we’ve seen in the past – Russia mass forces on Ukraine’s borders, claim some kind of provocation by Ukraine, and then invade. That’s what they did in 2014.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the US fears, saying that Russia “doesn’t threaten anyone” while describing fears of an attack on Ukraine as a “hollow and unfounded attempt to incite tensions.”
Follow EU Today on Social media:
