Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
On Monday evening, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announced that, at the instruction of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, 8,500 U.S. troops have been alerted that they could be sent to Ukraine should Russia continue to provoke the United States, Ukraine, or NATO.
“As [President Joe Biden] has made clear, the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us, our allies or partners,” Kirby said during a press conference.
These troops would be part of a larger NATO Response Force should deployment be required and would be in addition to the sizeable force of U.S. servicemen and women currently stationed across Europe.
The NATO Response Force is comprised of about 40,000 troops, of whom 20,000 are currently at a state of heightened readiness. In addition to land troops, this “very high readiness joint task force” features air, maritime and special operation forces.
“Secretary Austin has placed a range of units in the United States on a heightened preparedness to deploy, which increases our readiness to provide forces if NATO should activate the NRF or if other situations develop,” Kirby said.
While the American commitment is small in terms of numbers, the order Austin issued would allow the U.S. to send substantially more men if the need arises. Kirby, however, stressed that such a need had not yet presented itself.
“Again, I want to reinforce that as of now the decision has been made to put these units on higher alert, and higher alert only,” Kirby said. “No decisions have been made to deploy any forces from the United States at this time.”
In its release following a joint call among President Joe Biden and the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland, as well as officials from NATO and the European Union, the White House reiterated that the hope remains that diplomacy will prevail even as the U.S. and its allies continue to strategize along ever-more-militaristic lines.
“The leaders underscored their shared desire for a diplomatic resolution to the current tensions and reviewed recent engagements with Russia in multiple formats,” the release reads. “The leaders also discussed their joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including preparations to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia for such actions as well as to reinforce security on NATO’s eastern flank.”
The Pentagon’s announcement followed a Monday morning report that President Biden was considering relocating U.S. troops from Western Europe to the Baltics to assist NATO, as well as the revelation that the State Department was not yet certain how it would extract its remaining personnel from Ukraine.