Germany says NATO won’t let Russia dictate military posture

A German official said NATO will discuss Russia’s security proposals but won’t let Moscow dictate the bloc’s military posture amid rising tension over Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

During a visit to a German military base in Lithuania on Sunday, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters, “We need to solve the current tensions on the diplomatic level but just as well by putting up a credible deterrence.”

“We will discuss Russia’s proposals,” she added, “But it cannot be that Russia dictates to NATO partners their posture, and that is something that we will make very clear in the talks” next week at the NATO council.

Lambrecht’s comments come shortly after Russia on Friday set out a list of demands for Western countries, which include withdrawing NATO battalions from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, according to Reuters. 

The combat units, which are meant to stall any future attacks and give NATO time to send additional troops to the region, were deployed three years after Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea.  

Russia also demands that NATO cease its military activity in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and give Russia an effective veto over Ukraine’s future membership with the alliance, Reuters reported. 

Western powers have already ruled out many of the demands, while threatening harsh economic sanctions on Russia if the country continues to escalate its military buildup on Ukraine’s border. 

Russia has said it is responding to threats against its own security posed by Ukraine’s close relationship with NATO.