Romanian Defense Minister Vassily Danko said, on Tuesday, that the first US forces to reinforce the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states in Eastern Europe had arrived in Romania, in light of Russia’s build-up of its forces on the Ukrainian border from the other side.
The United States is shifting the locations of the Stryker squadron, numbering about 1,000 American soldiers, from Velcik, Germany, to Romania.
Danko said that the first 100 of them had arrived in the country, according to Reuters.
The standoff between Russia and Ukraine is alarming political and business leaders in Europe, who fear an invasion that could damage the entire region.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Moscow and Kiev, in an attempt to mediate to reduce tension and prevent an armed conflict, with Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders increasing.
European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell considered that Macron to Russia brought with it an “element of détente” in the crisis between the West and Moscow over Ukraine, but it did not achieve any “miracle”.
Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, prompting accusations from the United States and European countries that it is preparing to invade it.
Russia has denied planning to invade its neighbor, but the United States has warned that Moscow has amassed 70 percent of the forces it would need to carry out a large-scale incursion.
But the military escalation was accompanied by intense diplomacy to avoid a war, as Borrell described the situation earlier as the most dangerous for Europe since the end of the Cold War.
After Macron’s meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the French president said he saw “concrete” solutions to the crisis, and had received assurances from Putin that there would be no further escalation.
But Borrell, despite his optimism, said the problem “has not yet been resolved”.
