Worried about the worst? Six American fighters arrived in Estonia – NEW TIME

“Six fighters will be deployed by the end of next week,” said a spokesman for Ämari Air Base in northwestern Estonia. NATO Air Command has said that these fighters in Estonia will strengthen the Alliance’s Baltic air defense mission.

At the same time, NATO has previously announced that on Thursday, Denmark will send four F-16 fighters to the nearby Lithuanian base Šiauliai. According to the Alliance headquarters, these aircraft are to cooperate with other Allied countries throughout the Baltic and, in addition to air defense, to take part in air maneuvers there.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which used to be part of the Soviet Union but are now members of NATO and the EU, do not have their own fighter jets and rely on NATO to protect their airspace, Reuters recalls.

NATO said on Monday that it was putting its forces on standby and strengthening Eastern Europe with ships and fighters, but the deployment of American fighters in Estonia was not mentioned at the time. Russia has condemned the Alliance’s move, triggered by the accumulation of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, as a “hysteria” of the West.

Russia has recently gathered about 100,000 troops at its border with Ukraine. The West sees this as a preparation for a potential invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow rejects. However, the United States and its allies have threatened Russia to impose harsh sanctions on it if it attacks Ukraine.