WASHINGTON —
The Airborne Warning and Control System planes, known as as AWACS, will begin flying soon over Poland and Romania, both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, “to monitor the
Russian troops seized control in the Crimean peninsula this month, raising fears of a civil war in Ukraine. The crisis has prompted NATO countries that once were under Soviet control to seek firm signals that Washington and the rest of the military alliance will come to their aid if Moscow threatens them.
The military moves announced so far are small but are intended to reinforce the idea that the United States and NATO have sufficient forces available in Europe to respond if the crisis spills beyond Ukraine's borders, U.S. officials said.
NATO ambassadors in Brussels aproved the AWACS flights, acting on a recommendation from the alliance's top commander,
"These flights will enhance the alliance's situational awareness and all will take place solely over alliance territory," the statement added.
The move comes as U.S. and Polish officials are finalizing details of stepped-up U.S. joint training with the Polish air force that is expected to include deployment of additional U.S. fighters to Poland, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. already has sent six F-15 fighter jets to join air patrols over the Baltic states, more than doubling the number of U.S. aircraft participating in a NATO mission there.
The Truxton, a guided-missile destroyer, recently entered the Black Sea in what the Navy said was a previously planned training exercise. It docked Saturday in the Romanian port of Constanta.
The
"We're trying to tell [Russia] not to escalate this thing further ... and allow the conditions to be set for some kind of resolution in the Crimea," Gen.
Dempsey added, "We do have treaty obligations with our NATO allies. And I have assured them that if that treaty obligation is triggered, we would respond."
President
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