VILNIUS: The United States on Monday began deploying a battalion of troops and dozens of tanks to Lithuania for an unprecedented six-month rotation, a move sought by the Baltic EU and NATO state to deter neighboring Russia.
Dozens of Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles arrived by railway at the army training area in Pabrade.
Lithuania’s Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis said the deployment of some 500 US troops scheduled to stay through the winter proves that a US military presence on NATO’s eastern flank “is no longer a taboo.”
“First and foremost, it is a message to Lithuania and neighboring NATO states that allies are together with us,” the minister told AFP.
“And it is also a message to Russia that the US is engaged, and it is an additional deterrence element,” he added.
Ben Hodges, the former commander of US Army forces in Europe, said the US deployment was a “manifestation of American commitment to continued deterrence along NATO’s eastern flank,” at the time when US was pulling American troops out of Syria and abandoning its Kurdish allies.
“Nobody, including the Russians, should be confused by the Americans’ commitment to NATO despite what was I think a mistake of pulling out of Syria,” Hodges told AFP via telephone.
Two years ago, NATO deployed a German-led multinational battalion of around 1,000 troops to Lithuania, an EU and NATO nation of 2,8 million people.
The alliance installed similar battalions in Poland and Baltic states Estonia and Latvia as tripwires against possible Russian adventurism in the region after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The entire region had been dominated by the Soviet Union for more than 40 years after World War II.
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US moves troops, tanks into Lithuania in message to Russia
US moves troops, tanks into Lithuania in message to Russia
- Dozens of Abrams tanks and Bradley armored vehicles arrived by railway at the army training area in Pabrade
- The alliance has previously installed similar battalions in Poland and Baltic states Estonia and Latvia as tripwires against possible Russian adventurism in the region
Ukrainians defy cold, Russian strikes at sub-zero street party
KYIV: Music blasts from speakers and lights strobe in the dark as revellers, clad in puffer jackets and bobble hats, brave Kyiv’s freezing cold at an outdoor party despite blackouts triggered by Russian strikes.
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
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