U.S. Orders 3,000 Troops to Bolster European Allies in Russia-Ukraine Crisis
WASHINGTON—President Biden is directing the Pentagon to deploy more than 3,000 American troops to bolster the defense of European allies in the first major movement of U.S. forces in Russia’s military standoff with Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Mr. Biden is sending roughly 2,000 troops from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Poland and Germany this week and repositioning about 1,000 troops that are part of a Germany-based infantry Stryker squadron to Romania, on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s eastern flank closest to Russia, the officials said.
In addition, the Pentagon expects to make other moves of forces inside Europe, and has ordered several thousand more troops to be on standby to deploy, beyond the 8,500 troops given similar orders last week, the officials said.
In all, the moves are intended to try to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine and avert war in Eastern Europe, the officials said. Along with these moves, the Biden administration is trying to find a diplomatic solution, readying a barrage of economic sanctions should Russia attack and authorizing the transfer of some weapons and other equipment to Ukraine.
There is no intelligence that indicates that Russian President
could invade Eastern European countries like Romania or Poland, but as a NATO member, the U.S. has a treaty obligation to provide collective defense to those countries and is using those deployments to send a signal to allies and Mr. Putin. There is no such provision for Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.
“This is not troops who will go to Ukraine, they are not fighting in Ukraine, this is the United States abiding by our commitments under Article 5 to support and reassure our partners in the region,” White House press secretary
Jen Psaki
said, referring to the NATO provision that provides for collective defense of NATO allies.
Mr. Biden signed off on the military proposals after meeting Tuesday with Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin
and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen.
Mark Milley,
the officials said. Mr. Austin discussed the deployments with his counterparts in Romania, Germany and Poland in the past week.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley, in uniform, spoke last week about the Russia-Ukraine standoff.
Photo:
JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS
While a few hundred American military trainers and special-operations forces are inside Ukraine, none of the new forces have been authorized to enter the country, and all of the deployments are expected to be temporary, the officials said.
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