2014-06-04 08:06:00

US to boost military aid to Europe


(Vatican Radio) US President Barack Obama is to meet Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw Wednesday.On Tuesday, at the start of his four-day European tour in Poland, Obama announced plans for a $1bn fund to boost American military deployments to Europe amid more deadly clashes between pro-Russian separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Stefan Bos reports:

Obama spoke in Poland where he began a four-day European tour.  The country commemorates the 25th anniversary of communist Poland's first partly free election, which set off a democratic chain reaction across Moscow-controlled eastern Europe, that culminated in the crumbling of the Berlin Wall.

Poland and other eastern European countries have expressed concern that the Cold War-era isn't over yet, after  Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russian forces launched a battle for independence in eastern Ukraine. 

Speaking at a news conference in the Polish capital Warsaw with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski, President Obama warned Russia against what he views as provoking further tensions in Ukraine.

REASSURING EUROPE 

He said the United States would launch what he called a “European Reassurance Initiative” aimed at boosting  the US military presence in especially central and Eastern Europe.

"We'll increase the number of American personnel, army and air force units, continuously rotating through ally countries in Central and Eastern Europe. And we will be stepping up our partnership with friends like Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia as they provide for their own defence," he told reporters. 

"‘I’m calling on Congress to approve up to one billion dollars to support this effort, which will be the powerful demonstration of America’s unshakable commitment to our NATO allies,” Obama added.

The president, who also met U.S. and Polish air personnel from a detachment of F-16 fighter jets, said more sanctions were being prepared against Russia if the West determines that it engaged in destabilising Ukraine.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

He spoke ahead of talks with Ukraine's president elect Petro Poroshenko amid ongoing fighting in the east.On Tuesday, Kyiv launched a major offensive against pro-Russian separatists after they attacked a border guards camp near the eastern city of Luhansk. At least five pro-Russia rebels were killed in the clashes and several troops were injured.   

Amid the chaos, Poland's president gave the leader of minority Tatars in Crimea, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Solidarity Prize to mark the collapse of Communism. Thousands of Tatars have left the region in recent weeks, saying they fear persecution after the peninsula was taken over by Russia. 

 

 

 








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