February 2, 2022 the Pentagon announced that United States President Joe Biden signed off on the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania amidst the increasing presence of Russian military near the border. This presence has caught the attention of Ukraine and fellow NATO allies, as a potential invasion of the country may be initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prior to the announcement of the distribution of troops, 8,500 US troops were placed on high alert for potential NATO Response Forces. The broadcast of this news came as no shock, but officials have continued to insist that they would not be deployed long-term and wouldn’t be inflicting battle.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby stated, “These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine… We want to make sure that he knows any move on NATO is going to be resisted, and it’s going to trigger Article Five, and we’re going to be committed to the defense of our allies.”
Though an invasion from Russia has not been confirmed, it has been urged by Ukrainian officials to not refer to the threat as “imminent.”
Kirby spoke on this subject matter, communicating that the use of the word sent a false message to the public, suggesting that the conquest was going to take place.
Kirby did state, however, if Putin decided to conquer Ukraine, “obviously there’s going to be consequences for that.”
The repositioning of troops includes around 2,000 troops leaving directly from the US, with 1,000 troops presently based in Germany relocating to Romania. The pentagon has stated they are “not ruling out the possibility that there will be more” troop developments.
Written by McKinley Franklin
