Washington/Moscow – Russia has condemned the United States decision to send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania to support its Nato allies. The move is viewed as a potential spill over from the crisis over the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine.
Moscow said it was a "destructive" step which heightened tension and reduced the scope for a political solution.
Russia has some 100,000 troops near Ukraine. It denies planning to invade but said it could take unspecified military measures if its demands are not met, including a promise by NATO never to admit Kyiv.
Russia signalled that it was in no mood for compromise on Wednesday by calling Prime Minister Boris Johnson "utterly confused" and accusing British politicians of ignorance.
The Pentagon said 2,000 US troops would be sent from North Carolina to Poland and Germany, and a further 1,000 already in Germany would go to Romania.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the deployment was consistent with what he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin: "As long as he is acting aggressively, we're going to make sure we can reassure our NATO allies and Eastern Europe that we're there," he said, according to media reports on Twitter.
The objective, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said, was to send a "strong signal" to Putin "and frankly, to the world, that NATO matters to the United States and it matters to our allies".
Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the U.S. deployment was a strong sign of solidarity. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also welcomed it, saying the alliance's response to Russia was defensive and proportional.
Efforts to reach a diplomatic solution have faltered, with Western countries describing Russia's main demands as non-starters and Moscow showing no sign of withdrawing them.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would discuss the crisis with Biden in the coming hours and may travel to Russia to meet with Putin. The priority was to avoid tensions rising, Macron said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would meet Putin in Moscow soon, without giving a date.
"Russia and President Putin are open to communicating with everyone," Kremlin spokesman Peskov said. "Even to someone who is utterly confused."
Russia's Foreign Ministry also mocked Johnson's foreign secretary, Liz Truss, for saying in an interview that Britain was "supplying and offering extra support into our Baltic allies across the Black Sea" - two bodies of water that are on opposite sides of Europe - "as well as supplying Ukrainians with defensive weapons." The UK Foreign Office later said she was listing separate geographic areas of support.
-Reuters/BBC