American soldiers file in single file to board a C-130 aircraft for a flight to Kuwait for their final withdrawal from Iraq at Sather Air Base December 3, 2011 in Baghdad, Iraq.
Scott Peterson | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon will move some of its European-based forces further east and send additional US-based troops to Europe as the security situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia continues to deteriorate.
President Joe Biden will send 2,000 U.S. troops to Poland and Germany, where they will join other troops, NBC News reported, citing a senior government official. Another 1,000 who are already in Europe will be transferred to Romania, the official added.
“These forces will not fight in Ukraine. They are not permanent movements. They are responding to the current conditions,” the official told NBC News.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
The deployment involves an estimated 100,000 Russian troops equipped with advanced weapons and lining Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia and the northern border with Belarus, an ally of Moscow.
Last month, the Pentagon put 8,500 US troops on “high alert” to deploy to Europe should NATO activate a strike force. The troops represent America’s contribution to the 40,000-strong NATO Response Force, or NRF, whose activation requires the approval of all 30 NATO members.
Top Pentagon officials warned last week that the aftermath of a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be “terrible.”
“Given the nature of the forces that are deployed, the ground maneuver troops, the artillery, the ballistic missiles, the air forces, all packed up. If this were unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and that would result in a significant number of casualties,” US Army Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.
“It would be horrific,” Milley added.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, answers reporters’ questions about Russia and the crisis in Ukraine during a press conference at the Pentagon in Washington, the United States, January 28, 2022.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Milley, the nation’s top military officer, said Russia’s stance along the Ukrainian border was unlike anything he had seen during his four-decade military career.
He said the Russians have stationed air forces, naval forces, special forces, cyber-electronic warfare, command and control systems, logistics engineers and other capabilities along the Ukrainian border.
For months, the United States and its Western allies have observed a steady build-up of Kremlin forces along Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus. The increased military presence mimics Russian moves leading up to the illegal annexation of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula, in 2014, which sparked international outrage and triggered sanctions against Moscow.
The Kremlin has denied that the deployment was a prelude to an attack, instead describing the move as a military exercise.
Russian officials have repeatedly urged the US to prevent an eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance.
Russia has also demanded that the US “not establish military bases” in the territories of former Soviet countries that are not already members of NATO, or “use their infrastructure for military activities or develop bilateral military cooperation with them.”
Since 2002 Ukraine has been trying to join NATO, the most powerful military alliance in the world. The clause in Article 5 of the group states that an attack on one member country will be considered an attack on all.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin again accused Western nations of ignoring key Russian security concerns after the US last week refused to give in to Moscow’s demands regarding Ukraine and NATO.
Putin said during a news conference on Tuesday that the US wants to “contain Russia” and that Ukraine’s possible NATO membership would “undermine Russia’s security”.
Last week, Biden told reporters that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine would radically change European security. “If he moved in with all those forces, it would be the biggest invasion since World War II. It would change the world,” Biden said, referring to Putin.
A soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stands in front of tanks of the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine parked at their base near the village of Klugino-Bashkirivka in the Kharkiv region, January 31, 2022.
Sergey Bobok | AFP | Getty Images
Amid the Kremlin’s deployment, US and European allies have repeatedly threatened to impose swift and severe economic consequences if Putin orders an attack on Ukraine.
“He is [Putin] I’ve never seen sanctions like the ones I promised,” Biden said last month when asked about potential U.S. economic action this month.
Meanwhile, the State Department has warned all US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately, citing unpredictable security conditions. Last month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered legitimate family members of staff at its embassy in Kyiv to leave the country.
This is breaking news. Check for updates again.
