NATO to consider new troops on southeastern flank

NATO logos are seen at the Alliance headquarters ahead of a NATO Defence Ministers meeting, in Brussels, Belgium (REUTERS)

BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - NATO defence ministers are expected this week to set in motion a plan that could establish four multinational battlegroups in southeastern Europe in response to Russia’s military build-up in Ukraine, four diplomats said.   
Allied ministers meeting on Wednesday and Thursday will decide whether to order their military commanders to draw up plans to deploy battlegroups of some 1,000 troops each to Bulgaria and Romania, and possibly to Slovakia and Hungary.With NATO meeting as the United States warns of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, diplomats told Reuters that ministers are likely to agree to direct commanders to come up with a detailed plan for the four battlegroups on land.   
“There will be a tasking that allows us to escalate but also to de-escalate if Russia pulls back its military,” a senior NATO diplomat said, stressing that any new battlegroups would be on top of recent allied offers by Britain, the United States and others of ships and planes to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank.