PNN – The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia is expanding military bases and preparing to move more troops to European border areas around Ukraine.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network from this American newspaper: While US President Donald Trump and many other world leaders are preoccupied with the conflict in Ukraine, some Europeans are expressing concern about the actions of the Russian military in other parts of its border with the Green Continent.
The report states that with the expansion of Russian military bases in Europe’s border areas, a conflict between the country and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should be expected.
Military experts within Russia also believe that these actions by Moscow are in preparation for confrontation with NATO.
Russian officials have also sent mixed signals. Late last year, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told a conference that the Russian military must be ready for a conflict with NATO. At the same conference, President Vladimir Putin said that the West was worrying its own people by saying that Russia was ready to attack.
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The Wall Street Journal added that there is evidence that about 100 miles east of its border with Finland, in the Russian city of Petrozavodsk, military engineers are expanding bases where the Kremlin plans to create a new army headquarters to oversee tens of thousands of troops over the next few years.
Some Western military and intelligence officials have claimed that these forces, many of whom are now serving on the front lines in Ukraine, are intended to be the core of this army, preparing to confront the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, is expanding military recruitment, boosting weapons production, and upgrading railway lines in border areas.
Finland, which was forced to surrender to the Soviet Union in 1940, has spent decades trying to avoid a new confrontation with Moscow. The NATO member is currently strengthening its border with Russia with electronic defense equipment and barbed wire fences.
Trump, who has been pressuring Ukraine to accept a ceasefire agreement while trying to restore relations between Washington and Moscow, believes that concerns that Russia is pursuing ambitions beyond Ukraine are “overblown.”
Responding to a question about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s warning that Russia could wage war against NATO if Washington cuts off its military aid and support, he said: I don’t agree with that, not even a little bit.
It is worth noting that Russia has increased its military spending from 3.6 to more than 6 percent of GDP this year. While the United States spent 3.4 percent of its GDP on its military last year, and European Union countries spent an average of 2.1 percent of this amount on military activities.