NATO will not allow Russia to determine its military strategy Germany says

NATO will not allow Russia to determine its military strategy, Germany says. 

NATO will debate Russia’s security plans but not allow Moscow to influence NATO’s military strategy. 

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht stated on Sunday during a visit to German troops stationed in Lithuania to stop the possibility of a Russian attack.

This Friday, Moscow made a demand list to the West, including the withdrawal of NATO brigades from Poland and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania that were former members of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union.

Russia is also requesting legal certainty that NATO will stop any military activities conducted in Eastern Europe and Ukraine and effective Russian opposition to any future NATO acceptance for Ukraine, which the West has previously excluded.

“We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level but just as well by putting up a credible deterrence,” Lambrecht stated to reporters in Rukla in her first trip to German troops in the world.

The combat teams formed within three years of Moscow’s acquisition of Crimea to the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula Crimea in 2014 were designed to deter an attack and allow additional NATO troops to reach the frontline.

“We will discuss Russia’s proposals…But it cannot be that Russia dictates to NATO partners their posture, and that is something that we will make very clear in the talks (next week at the NATO council),” she added.

The West has threatened severe economic sanctions against Russia if Moscow intensifies its military build-up at the border of Ukraine. 

Moscow insists it is reacting to security threats due to Kyiv’s growing close ties with NATO.

Speaking with Lambrecht on Sunday, Lithuania’s Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas claimed Russia created an arc through the alliance. 

He also stated that NATO must not permit Moscow to separate Europe into different spheres of influence.

“We need to support Ukraine with all means, which includes the delivery of lethal weapons,” Anusauskas said without revealing details about the type of weapon he was referring to.

Lambrecht did not respond to an article published by Spiegel the Saturday before that said NATO’s most senior general Tod Wolters suggested the alliance should have an equivalent military presence, the one in Poland and the Baltic states of Bulgaria in Bulgaria and Romania.