Tension in Ukraine continues to grow. The strategic port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine is “under siege” and under “relentless attacks” from Russian forces, the city’s mayor said on Saturday, the tenth day of the invasion, and then that the Russians and Ukrainians were preparing for a third round of talks over the weekend. For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday expressed regret over NATO’s decision not to create a no-fly zone in Ukraine in the midst of a Russian invasion: “All these people who will die from today will also die because of you,” he said. launched, in the video.
>> War in Ukraine: follow the development of the situation
On Friday, members of the Alliance did indeed refuse to impose a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine, fearing an escalation of the conflict with Moscow. At the same time, NATO forces concentrated in Romania, where the large Constanta airbase was located, on the Black Sea coast, just opposite the fighting in Odessa.
In fact, this deployment is very important for Bucharest, which borders Ukraine for 650 km. NATO troops were reinforced a month ago in Romania. The American army has doubled the number of personnel, increasing to 2000 people. The first French reinforcements of 250 Alpine hunters arrived at the end of February, just a few days after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, with armored vehicles and fighting vehicles.
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French forces, which will take the lead in operations as a framework nation, continue to deploy: there will be 500 of them on Sunday, March 6, when French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly will land at a NATO air base to greet them. The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is also approaching the area, staying in the Mediterranean to allow French fighters to carry out reconnaissance and deterrence missions.
“We want to send a deterrent signal to Russia so that Russia does not take another step and that Russia does not take it into its head to cross this limit, which is the Atlantic Alliance; we are countries bound by a solidarity pact, and Russia knows that if one of us is attacked, the entire Alliance will strike back,” Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly warned on Franceinfo on Thursday. “We deployed them because we have an obligation to provide assistance and solidarity to the countries that are part of the European Union, that are part of the Atlantic Alliance and that are closest to this conflict,” she added.
Germans, Italians, Poles, Dutch and Belgians also increased their numbers. Initially, they all gather at this massive NATO base in Constanta, in southeastern Romania, a two-hour drive from the Ukrainian conflict zone. Romania is at the forefront and French forces will play an ever-increasing role here, the Romanian Defense Minister confirmed on Friday.