President Biden is considering deploying several thousand U.S. troops, as well as warships and aircraft, to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an expansion of American military involvement amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, according to administration officials.<\/p>\n
The move would signal a major pivot for the Biden administration, which up until recently was taking a restrained stance on Ukraine, out of fear of provoking Russia into invading. But as President Vladimir V. Putin has ramped up his threatening actions toward Ukraine, and talks between American and Russian officials have failed to discourage him, the administration is now moving away from its do-not-provoke strategy.<\/p>\n
In a meeting on Saturday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, senior Pentagon officials presented Mr. Biden with several options that would shift American military assets much closer to Mr. Putin\u2019s doorstep, the administration officials said. The options include sending 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European countries, with the potential to increase that number tenfold if things deteriorate.<\/p>\n
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about internal deliberations.<\/p>\n
Mr. Biden is expected to make a decision as early as this week, they said. He is weighing the buildup as Russia has escalated its menacing posture against Ukraine, including massing more than 100,000 troops and weaponry on the border and stationing Russian forces in Belarus. On Saturday, Britain accused Moscow<\/a> of developing plans to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cEven as we\u2019re engaged in diplomacy, we are very much focused on building up defense, building up deterrence,\u201d Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u201cNATO itself will continue to be reinforced in a significant way if Russia commits renewed acts of aggression. All of that is on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n So far, none of the military options being considered include deploying additional American troops to Ukraine itself, and Mr. Biden has made clear that he is loath to enter another conflict following America\u2019s painful exit from Afghanistan last summer after 20 years.<\/p>\n But after years of tiptoeing around the question of how much military support to provide to Ukraine, for fear of provoking Russia, Biden officials have recently warned that the United States could throw its weight behind a Ukrainian insurgency<\/a> should Mr. Putin invade Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n And the deployment of thousands of additional American troops to NATO\u2019s eastern flank, which includes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Biden administration officials said, is exactly the scenario that Mr. Putin has wanted to avoid, as he has seen the western military alliance creep closer and closer to Russia\u2019s own border.<\/p>\n The discussions came as the State Department ordered all family members of U.S. embassy personnel in Kyiv to leave Ukraine<\/a>, citing the threat of Russian military action, and authorized some embassy employees to depart as well, according to senior State Department officials who briefed reporters on Sunday. The officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, declined to say how many embassy personnel and family members were in the country. Thinning out staff at American embassies is a common precaution when conflicts or other crises arise that could put American diplomats in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n In his news conference last week, Mr. Biden said he had cautioned Mr. Putin that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would prompt Washington to send more troops to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to actually increase troop presence in Poland, in Romania, et cetera, if in fact he moves,\u201d Mr. Biden said. \u201cThey are part of NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n During a phone call this month, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III warned his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoygu, that a Russian incursion into Ukraine would most likely result in the exact troop buildup that Mr. Biden is now considering.<\/p>\n At the time of the phone call \u2014 Jan. 6 \u2014 the Biden administration was still trying to be more restrained in its stance on Ukraine. But after unsuccessful talks between Mr. Blinken and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Friday, the administration is eying a more muscular posture, including not only diplomatic options like sanctions, but military options like increasing military support to Ukrainian forces and deploying American troops to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is clearly in response to the sudden stationing of Russian forces in Belarus, on the border, essentially, with NATO,\u201d said Evelyn Farkas, the top Pentagon official for Russia and Ukraine during the Obama administration. \u201cThere is no way that NATO could not reply to such a sudden military move in this political context. The Kremlin needs to understand that they are only escalating the situation with all of these deployments and increasing the danger to all parties, including themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n A former top Pentagon official for Europe and NATO policy, Jim Townsend, said the administration\u2019s proposal did not go far enough.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s likely too little too late to deter Putin,\u201d Mr. Townsend said in an email. \u201cIf the Russians do invade Ukraine in a few weeks, those 5,000 should be just a down payment for a much larger U.S. and allied force presence. Western Europe should once again be an armed camp.\u201d<\/p>\n During the meeting at Camp David, Mr. Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared by video from the Pentagon and from General Milley\u2019s quarters, where he has been quarantining since he tested positive for the coronavirus. Officials said that if Mr. Biden approved the deployment, some of the troops would come from the United States, while others would move from other parts of Europe to the more vulnerable countries on NATO\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n American officials did not describe in detail the ground troop reinforcements under review, but current and former commanders said they should include more air defense, engineering, logistics and artillery forces.<\/p>\n Besides the troops, Mr. Biden could also approve sending additional aircraft to the region.<\/p>\n Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Sunday that the United States also needed to conduct more training in those NATO nations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need joint exercises in Poland, the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria, to show Putin that we\u2019re serious,\u201d Mr. McCaul said on \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u201cRight now, he doesn\u2019t see we\u2019re serious.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Russia-Ukraine-Belarus-map.jpg\")
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