The Pentagon has not ruled out sending more troops to Europe to bolster NATO’s eastern flank as the war in Ukraine continues.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is “not taking that off the table, the possibility that we could possibly deploy additional U.S. forces to the eastern flank,” though he emphasized that there was no change yet.
“This is something the secretary is looking at every week, and he’s not going to foreclose any option if it’s a valuable requirement to bolster the eastern flank,” the official added.
US HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF ACTIVITIES AT UKRAINIAN BIOLABS ONCE SEIZED BY RUSSIA: OFFICIALS
The United States has more than 100,000 service members in Europe, roughly 14,000 of whom are in Eastern European countries such as Poland and Romania. The U.S. normally has more than 80,000 troops stationed in Europe, while 12,000 were deployed and another 2,000 moved from within Europe in recent weeks.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. will not be sending troops to engage in battle against Russian forces, despite raising its presence in NATO countries near Ukraine, though he has also said that the U.S. intends to uphold NATO’s Article 5 agreement. Article 5 maintains that if any NATO country is attacked, every member should view it as an attack perpetrated against itself.
The Biden administration has long sought to avoid possible escalation in the war through its own actions and support for Ukraine. It has repeatedly declined to provide Ukraine with fighter jets and to implement and enforce a “no-fly” zone over the country, arguing that both could be viewed by Russia as escalatory. The Pentagon also postponed a missile test and created a de-confliction line between the U.S. and Russian military officials in efforts to avoid miscommunication.
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The U.S. tests the line “every day, and the Russians are picking up,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Tuesday. “So that’s a good thing.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the Department of Defense had seen “clear evidence” that Russian forces had committed war crimes but didn’t provide specifics. A senior U.S. defense official added on Tuesday that they had seen that Russians had “deliberately and intentionally targeted civilian infrastructure, hospitals, and places of shelter.”
