NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. A.F. General Phillip Breedlove have extended military command centers to the former Warsaw Pact Nations of Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

In a show of additional forces during President Vladimir Putin’s meeting in Moscow with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO will now build up its “rapid force” to an additional 25,000 troops. The nations sending troops was not announced. The United States’, soon to be, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has stated during his US Senate confirmation hearings that he would send lethal weapons such as the javelin anti-tank missiles within weeks to Kiev’s military. The U.S. will provide satellite and air ISR as well as airlift capabilities. According to the U.S. media, the U.S. has already sent military advisers and trainers to Western Ukraine. It is clear that NATO will have military forces next to the Russian border regardless of the outcome of any peace talks to cease the fighting in Ukraine’s East. So far, the declared republics of Lugansk and Donetsk are demanding that any peace treaty with Petro Petroshenko’s government recognize their borders as it currently stands. Recent UN reports stated that over 5300 Ukrainians have been killed and tens of thousands injured by Kiev’s shelling of civilian housing, hospitals, and schools. U.S. ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute stated that this movement of the “spearhead” of NATO to the borders of Russia was just a move “to return to the basics of defending Western Europe”. It is clear that NATO during a time of recession for the economies of the members of NATO,with the exception of the UK and the US, are willing to engage in a potential war with Russia. If that is the perception, then Merkel and Hollande are on a fool’s errand in persuading Vladimir Putin that military forces near the Russian borders are only defensive and not offensive. Russia has made no statements that they ever intended to invade any nation members of NATO. Further, NATO’s actions, under pressure from the U.S. White House, clearly violates the terms agreed on over the withdrawal of Russian forces from East Germany. Those terms were that the former Warsaw Pact Nations would not join NATO and that military forces would not be on the borders of Russia. Is Spearhead of NATO made of clay or steel? Is Russia willing to have NATO troops stationed near its borders with the full intent to engage Russian military forces in the present or in the future. Only the outcome of negotiations to end the Ukraine’s conflict will tell.