The United Kingdom is willing to deploy 1,000 more troops in the event of a humanitarian crisis related to the tensions in Ukraineannounced on Wednesday the British prime minister, Boris Johnsonwho will travel on Thursday to Brussels and Warsaw.
“The Alliance has to draw lines in the snow and be clear that there are certain principles that we will not compromise on,” the British leader said in a statement, citing “the safety of all NATO allies and the right for any European democracy to aspire to membership in NATO”.
Prohibiting Ukraine from joining the Alliance is one of the main security demands of the Russian president, Vladimir Putinin the current crisis.
In Brussels, Johnson is scheduled to meet with NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenbergand in Warsaw, with the Polish president Andrzej Duda and his prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
Johnson announced that an additional 1,000 British troops could support NATO and its allies in the event of a “humanitarian crisis,” according to Downing Street.
The British proposal to strengthen NATO’s defense includes doubling its troops in Estonia (currently some 900 soldiers), the deployment of fighter planes in southern Europe and two ships in the eastern Mediterranean.
The United Kingdom announced this week the deployment of 350 more soldiers in Poland, in addition to a hundred soldiers already present in the country.