NATO sends more ships, fighter jets to Eastern Europe as Russia masses troops on Ukraine border

“It’s proving how seriously the United States takes our Article V commitment,” he added, referring to NATO’s mutual defense clause.The preparations for a possible reinforcement of NATO allies bordering Russia came as President Biden held a secure video call with European leaders to discuss the increasing tensions over Ukraine and U.S. officials threatened to impose new export controls aimed at damaging strategic Russian industries.Western nations also began taking the kind of dramatic steps reserved for the eve of anticipated armed action.Britain ordered some diplomats and their families to leave Ukraine, a day after the United States ordered families of diplomats to leave Kyiv and authorized nonessential diplomatic staff to leave. The resulting conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 13,000 people, continues.The threat of a Ukraine attack against the regions was “now very high,” Peskov claimed.Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said that Kyiv had repeated many times that “Ukraine is committed to peace and diplomacy, and does not plan any military attacks.”Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Ukraine of moving forces to its northern border with Belarus and threatened to further bolster the Belarusian side of the border.“We just want to protect our southern border,” he said, speaking at a meeting with the head of the Belarusian border guards, the BelTA state news agency reported.European Union president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday announced 1.2 billion euros ($1.35 billion) in emergency aid to help Kyiv meet financing needs “due to the conflict.”Despite the escalation, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Monday that E.U. countries would not scale back staffing at embassies or send diplomatic families home.“We are not going to do the same thing because we don’t know any specific reasons,” Borrell told journalists before a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to join online, Reuters reported.