U.S. troops put on standby as tensions rise
As fears of a Russian ground invasion into neighboring Ukraine looms over the European continent, housands of U.S. troops were put on standby to deploy to eastern Europe.
President Joe Biden's decision to alert the military units on Monday was a dramatic change in approach to the crisis as tensions along the Ukrainian border worsened. The Biden Administration has resisted from mobilizing military forces for weeks as it tried to resolve the situation with Moscow diplomatically. The lack of progress and continued build-up of Russian forces has caused Biden to reevaluate the U.S. options, according to administration officials.
Amid intelligence warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine may be imminent, the president is considering moving thousands of troops, naval ships and warplanes into the Baltic states and eastern Europe. In a separate announcement, NATO said Monday it was moving additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe to defend its eastern flank.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said up to 8,500 U.S. service members were put on heightened alert for deployment to bolster NATO allies eastern defenses should Russia invade. Kirby said the forces would not be sent to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, but instead would serve as reinforcements in places like Poland or Romania to reassure U.S. allies and deter Russian aggression. If activated, the troops would be part of the NATO Response Force based in Eastern Europe, a rapid-reaction force that has air, naval and intelligence components in case of an emergency.
Kirby said no decisions have been made to deploy. I don't think anyone wants to see another war on the European continent, and there is no reason why that has to occur. The Biden administration has stopped short of threatening U.S. military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes his forces into Ukraine, but promised sweeping economic sanctions and continued military support to Ukrainian forces.
Kirby said that the U.S. units identified for possible deployment are logistics, medical, aviation, transportation and intelligence. Kirby said that some of these forces were already on a heightened posture readiness to deploy posture. So in some cases, units would go from say 10 days to deploy and now they are at five days. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley briefed Biden via teleconference Saturday on the military options regarding Ukraine. Only about 200 U.S. troops are currently in the country, as members of the Florida National Guard are training Ukrainian forces. The U.S. has about 70,000 troops in Europe, but only about 6,000 are in eastern Europe. They are mainly in Poland, where forces are on a rotational basis, including an armored brigade combat team. Austin and Milley gave the president options on moving forces east to Europe and preparing to send more troops from the U.S. if necessary, according to an administration official.
The White House and European allies have been struggling to respond after Russia began positioning more than 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine. The deployment could be the largest Russian troop build-up since the Cold War, which Putin has tried to use as leverage against the U.S. to reduce troops, weapons and influence along his borders, according to analysts.
The U.S. and Russia have talked on a number of occasions to resolve the crisis, but have yet to narrow their differences. The State Department said on Sunday it was ordering nonessential staff and family members to leave the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, out of an abundance of caution due to the escalating tensions. Americans considering traveling to Russia and Ukraine were warned by the Department.
Putin denies Russia has any intention to attack Ukraine but he has made clear that he considers NATO military support for neighboring countries a growing threat. The Russian Foreign Ministry published two long draft treaties last month that listed what Moscow wants from the U.S. and its allies. They want to end NATO's east expansion, including a pledge that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO, as well as the U.S. military ties with Ukraine and other former Soviet nations, all of which have been dismissed by the U.S. as non-starters.
Regardless of what Putin says, the U.S. and NATO officials say they need to be prepared after Russian forces invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine six years later. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supported pro-Russian separatist militias in several eastern Ukrainian cities since. Russia has tried to gain political support for the country by using proxy forces to continue to sow chaos in the country.
NATO will take all necessary measures to protect and defend allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the alliance, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday. As part of the military retrenchment on the continent, Denmark planned to send a frigate to the Baltic Sea and four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania. The Netherlands are sending two F-35 fighter jets to Bulgaria, and France is prepared to send troops to Romania.
The Pentagon s troop announcement came the same day that a 12 day NATO naval exercise, Neptune Strike 22, began in the Mediterranean Sea with the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, along with its strike group and air wing. The exercise was months in the making and unrelated to the situation in Ukraine, according to the U.S.