NATO allies are bolstering the alliance’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine, as the European Union set out plans for loans and grants for Kyiv worth more than $1.3 billion.

       The moves are part of sharpening efforts by the U.S. and its allies to gird for what they believe could be an imminent military invasion, which Russia denies it is planning.

       NATO said allies were putting forces on standby and sending ships and jet fighters to its northeastern and southeastern member countries.

       “I welcome allies contributing additional forces to NATO," Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said in a statement. “NATO will continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the alliance."

       Denmark said it was dispatching a frigate to the Baltic Sea and would send four F-16 jet fighters to Lithuania. Spain is sending ships to join NATO forces in the Black and Mediterranean Seas and is considering sending jet fighters to Bulgaria. The Netherlands is deploying two F-35 jet fighters to Bulgaria from April. The U.S. is also considering increasing its military presence in alliance members in Eastern Europe, and France has said it could send troops to Romania.

       Mr. Stoltenberg was also meeting with Sweden and Finland’s foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the situation. Both are close partners of the alliance but aren’t NATO members.

       The deployments are a riposte to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands that NATO pull its forces back from its eastern members, which were once subordinate to Moscow. NATO deployed some 5,000 troops to Poland and the Baltic countries after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.

       Russia has also insisted that NATO provide guarantees it won’t give membership to Ukraine, reversing a pledge the alliance made in 2008, without giving a time frame, that Ukraine and Georgia would become members.

       The U.S. and its allies rejected both demands at a series of meetings with Russian officials earlier this month.

       On Monday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said that Russian and Belarusian troop levels in Belarus had reached a point where they posed a threat to NATO, not only to Ukraine.

       “This creates a need to bolster NATO’s presence in the eastern flank," he said.

       On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels would make available a loan package of 1.2 billion euros, equivalent to $1.36 billion, of which half would be disbursed quickly to help Kyiv meet additional funding needs due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The new loan package will need approval from member states and EU lawmakers.

       Brussels will also double the grants it gives Ukraine this year, providing an additional €120 million to Kyiv. Ms. von der Leyen said EU officials would soon start work on a second, larger loan package to help Ukraine meet its future funding needs.

       The EU has given close to €17 billion in loans, grants and investments in Ukraine since 2014.

       “Ukraine is a free and sovereign country. It makes its own choices and the European Union stands by the side of Ukraine," she said.

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       Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the announcement, saying on Twitter that a “strong Ukraine is key for European security."

       The announcement comes as EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels to discuss the crisis over Ukraine, talks that will be joined by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The U.S., the EU and other Western countries are working on a package of hard-hitting sanctions to apply to Russia if it sends troops into Ukraine again.

       In a statement, the foreign ministers said “any further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine will have massive consequences and severe costs. This includes a wide array of sectoral and individual restrictive measures that would be adopted in coordination with partners."

       This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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