German Eurofighters reach Romania for NATO missions amid Ukraine crisis

BUCHAREST, Feb 17 (Reuters) – German Air Power Eurofighters arrived at a navy air base in japanese Romania on Thursday as a part of a deployment to NATO’s japanese flanks amid a Russian navy build-up on Ukraine’s border, the defence ministry stated.

The three Eurofighters and roughly 60 troopers will be part of Italian and Romanian forces for enhanced air policing missions over the following three weeks. German air forces ran comparable missions alongside British air forces in Romania in 2021.

They are going to be stationed on the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea the place a Stryker squadron of 1,000 U.S. service members was relocated earlier this month from Vilseck, Germany. The squadron added to the 900 troopers Washington presently has rotating in Romania, which borders Ukraine to the north.

Earlier this week NATO instructed its navy commanders to attract up plans for brand new battlegroups in central and southeastern Europe, because it accused Russia of sending extra troops to areas close to Ukraine as a substitute of withdrawing its forces. learn extra

Diplomats stated 4 new models comprising a complete of round 4,000 troops may very well be based mostly in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia in what could be the most important shift in NATO’s navy posture because it moved troops to the Baltics and Poland following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

A German military convoy of 130 troopers and 60 automobiles reached the Baltic state of Lithuania on Thursday, bringing nearly half of deliberate reinforcements for the nation’s German-led NATO battlegroup. learn extra

On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden stated there was now each indication Russia was planning to invade into Ukraine. learn extra

Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Modifying by Mark Heinrich

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