The US envoy to NATO, Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison, says that Russia’s militarization of the “temporarily occupied Crimea” makes it necessary to maintain a strengthened military presence of the Alliance in eastern Europe.
According to UNIAN, during a video conference in ZOOM for journalists, Hutchison said that NATO forces were deployed on the eastern border of the Alliance to deter any further activities of the Russian Federation in the region.
“Russia is currently militarizing Crimea, and for this reason, we must make sure that all our allies in the Black Sea and in other regions are protected”, – Hutchison said.
Calling Russia’s presence in Crimea “illegal”, the NATO spokeswoman said that the presence of the alliance’s troops in the region does not take place on a permanent basis, but at the level of rotation of forces in order to “deter any further Russian activity, and in the future, so that Crimea returns to Ukraine.