“We will not accept a world in which a powerful neighbor can intimidate or attack his neighbours.” On a visit to Poland on Thursday, February 10, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the arrival of 350 additional British soldiers in response to Moscow’s deployment of Russian troops. near the Ukrainian borders, as well as the announcement of major military maneuvers in Belarus. These soldiers join the 150 already deployed in Poland in December, on the Belarusian border and the 150 soldiers who contribute to NATO’s reinforced forward presence.
“We have to work together now to achieve a detente and convince the president [russe] Vladimir Putin to start a de-escalation”, stressed Boris Johnson during a joint press briefing with his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. “Much of what we talked about in November has come to fruition and that is why earlier today the British 45th Commando [des Royal Marines] landed in Poland”, he congratulated himself.
For his part, the head of the Polish government once again called for European unity in the face of the Ukrainian crisis and declared that, in the face of Russia’s aggressive policy, it was time “that the world, that the West, come out of its geopolitical slumber”.
Earlier in the day, the head of British diplomacy, Liz Truss, had called on Russia to withdraw its troops massed near the Ukrainian borders. “The Minister Lavrov told me today that Russia has no plans to invade Ukraine,” she declared, after a meeting in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. “But these words must be followed by action and we need to see the troops and equipment stationed on the Ukrainian border moved elsewhere,” continued the diplomat.
For his part, Sergey Lavrov described the exchange with Liz Truss as “conversation between a deaf and a mute”claiming that his British counterpart had no “not heard” the explanations “most detailed” of Russia on its concerns about NATO enlargement. “I had the feeling that our British colleagues either have no idea of the clarifications” given recently by Vladimir Putin on the absence of Russian warlike intentions, “or completely ignore them”, he continued.