The broadcasts to Eastern Europe, first reported by DailyExpertNews, show support for NATO allies who feel threatened by Russia’s military actions near Ukraine and the threat of invasion, US officials said. .
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the deployment involved about 2,000 troops to be deployed from the United States to Poland and Germany. In addition, about 1,000 troops currently stationed in Germany moved to Romania.
Kirby said the moves, scheduled to take place in the coming days, were not permanent and stressed: “These troops are not going to fight in Ukraine.”
The move is the most significant sign yet that the US is preparing for the prospect of Russian President Vladimir Putin launching an invasion of Ukraine as Russia has shown no signs of de-escalation after several rounds of diplomatic talks with the US and NATO.
Biden signed the additional troops after meeting Tuesday morning in the White House with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, an official said.
Biden told DailyExpertNews’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that the decision was “completely consistent” with what the US told Russia during the discussions.
“It’s completely consistent with what I told Putin in the beginning,” Biden said in a brief conversation in the White House East Room. “As long as he acts aggressively, we will make sure to reassure our NATO allies and Eastern Europe that we are there and that Article V is a sacred obligation.”
“I used that once. I think others have used that once. And then we stopped using it because I think it sent a message that we didn’t intend to send, which was that we knew President Putin had a decision,” White said, House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Last week, Psaki said an invasion by Russian troops into Ukraine is still “imminent,” a description that sparked anger in Kiev. Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, disagreed, arguing the descriptions could spark panic and economic turmoil.
More US troops can be deployed
Kirby stressed that these additional troop movements do not mean the US believes Putin has decided to invade Ukraine or any other country, but “if he invades Ukraine, there will of course be consequences.”
“We want to make sure he knows that every step in NATO will be resisted, and it will activate Article five, and we will be committed to defending our allies,” Kirby said.
Last week, the US placed 8,500 troops in the US in case a NATO Response Force is called in and US troops are needed quickly. But the US and NATO already have tens of thousands of other troops in Europe to call on for possible additional deployment with Eastern European allies.
Kirby said the troops deployed were separated from the 8,500 US troops on alert. The Pentagon “doesn’t rule out the possibility that there will be more” US troop movements in the coming days, Kirby said.
The US deployment in Poland consists of approximately 1,700 troops of an 82nd Airborne Division infantry brigade combat team based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. There are about 300 soldiers of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg who are committed to Germany. And the US is moving a stryker squadron of about 1,000 troops from Germany to Romania, Kirby said.
The troops will operate on a bilateral basis with their host countries, as NATO has not yet activated the multinational response force.
A Latvian diplomat told DailyExpertNews on Wednesday that Latvia, which borders Russia and Belarus, is “ready and willing to accommodate more troops from the US — it has long been a topic of discussion with the Pentagon and those discussions are still ongoing.” in progress.”
Allies welcome announcement
The announcement of the deployment of US troops to Poland was good news for Polish officials, a senior Polish diplomat said. Polish officials had been discussing with their US counterparts the possibility of sending more US troops to the country in recent days, the diplomat said.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau will visit Washington from Thursday, and he will meet with White House officials and lawmakers, the Polish diplomat said. Rau will meet State Secretary Antony Blinken at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
Biden said last Friday that he would move troops “shortly” as Russia continues to build up troops near Ukraine, raising fears of a renewed invasion even as diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions escalating have continued.
On Wednesday, the Spanish newspaper El Pais published confidential written responses that the United States and NATO sent to Russia last week, which rejected Moscow’s demand never to admit Ukraine to NATO. El Pais published five pages of what it said was a US government document and four pages of what it said was a NATO document, saying both had been sent to Russia on January 26.
Kirby confirmed on Wednesday that the US written response to Russia was authentic, saying the publication “confirms to the whole world what we have always said”.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the US decision to deploy additional troops in Europe.
“This is a strong signal of US commitment and comes in addition to other recent US contributions to our shared security – including 8,500 troops highly ready for the NATO Response Force and the USS Harry S. Truman assault group under NATO command.” the Mediterranean,” Stoltenberg said in a statement.
DailyExpertNews’s Jim Sciutto, Kylie Atwood, Ellie Kaufman, Jennifer Hansler, Michael Conte, Kevin Liptak and Tim Lister contributed coverage.