Ukraine crisis: what is NATO and why doesn't Russia trust it?

Posted on 25th Feb 2022 by rohit kumar

Russia's invasion of Ukraine posed the biggest challenge to NATO in its 73-year history.

 

The war is taking place right next to the eastern border of the NATO region and many NATO member states feel that Russia may attack them further.

 

military alliance NATO, which includes powerful countries such as the US, Britain, France, and Germany,

 

Deploying more troops to eastern Ukraine. However, Britain and America have made it clear that they have no intention of sending their troops to Ukraine.

 

What is Neto?

 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance formed in 1949, initially consisting of 12 countries, including the US, Canada, Britain, and France. The basic principle of this organization is that if anyone member country is attacked, then the rest of the countries will come forward to help it.

 

Its original purpose was to prevent Russia's expansion into Europe after the Second World War. In 1955, in response to NATO, Soviet Russia formed its separate military alliance with the communist countries of Eastern Europe, which was named the Warsaw Pact.

 

But after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many countries that were part of the Warsaw Pact switched sides and joined NATO.

 

The NATO alliance now has 30 member states.

 

Why are there current tensions with Russia over Ukraine?

 

Ukraine is the former Soviet Republic bordered by Russia on one side and the European Union on the other. Ukraine has a large population of people of Russian origin and has social and cultural ties with Russia.

 

Strategically Russia has been considering it as its part and recently Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine is part of Russia.

 

However, in recent years Ukraine has been leaning more towards the west. Its intention to be part of the European Union and NATO is also written in its constitution.

 

Ukraine is currently an ally of NETA. This means that there is agreement that Ukraine can be included in NATO at some point in the future.

 

Russia wants Western countries to assure that this will never happen.

 

However, the US and its allies are against preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. They argue that Ukraine is an independent nation that can make decisions about its security and form coalitions.

 

What else is Russia worried about?

 

President Putin claims that Western countries are using Neta to enter Russian territory. They want NATO to stop its military activities in Eastern Europe.

 

He has been arguing that the US has broken a promise made in 1990 that promised that NATO would not move east. At the same time, America says that it had never made any such promise.

 

NATO says that only some of its member states share borders with Russia and are a protective alliance.

 

What has NATO done to Russia and Ukraine?

 

Russia took control of Crimea, the eastern peninsula, a few months after the Ukrainian people ousted the pro-Russian president from power in 2014. Russia has also openly supported the separatists who have taken control of large areas of eastern Ukraine.

 

NATO did not interfere in this, but it deployed coalition troops for the first time in Eastern European countries. The purpose of deploying these soldiers is that if Russia ever moves towards the NATO area in the future, it can be stopped.

 

NATO has equal battle groups of four battalions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, while Romania has a multinational brigade.

 

NATO has also increased air surveillance in the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe to stop Russian planes from trying to enter member states' airspace.

 

Russia has been saying that it wants these forces to leave these areas.

 

What has NATO done in the current crisis?

 

To strengthen NATO's eastern borders, the US has deployed 3,000 additional troops to Poland and Romania. Apart from this, 8,500 soldiers ready for battle have been kept on alert. However, there are no plans to deploy troops to Ukraine yet.

 

Apart from this, Nato has also sent weapons worth about $ 200 million to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Apart from this, NATO has also allowed other member countries to send US-made weapons to Ukraine.

 

Britain has given 2 thousand short-range anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. It has sent 350 soldiers to Poland and has doubled its strength by sending an additional 900 soldiers to Estonia.

 

Britain has deployed additional RAF fighters to southern Europe and has also sent Royal Navy warships to patrol the eastern Mediterranean. There are already warships of NATO here.

 

Britain has also kept a thousand soldiers ready to be ready for humanitarian help in the situation arising out of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

Denmark, Spain, France, and the Netherlands have also sent warplanes and warships to Eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.

 

What will Neto do now?

 

NATO has put hundreds of fighter jets and warships on alert and is increasing its troops in the border areas of Russia and Ukraine.

 

He can also activate his response force, which has about forty thousand soldiers.