Pentagon Says Troops on Heightened Alert, But Will Not Be Deployed to Ukraine

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The Pentagon has shortened the timeframe troops could be called up in response to Russia’s expanded military presence on Ukraine’s border. But a Defense Department spokesman stated that troops won’t be deployed to Ukraine and won’t be in combat with the Russian forces.

The announcement comes a week after U.S. officials said 8,500 troops have been put on heightened alert to deploy amid heightened tensions along Ukraine’s border.

© PETRAS MALUKAS/Getty Images A Danish Military Security soldier stands next to a Danish Royal Air Force F-16 fighter jet in a hangar at the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Siauliai, Lithuania, on January 28, 2022. – The Royal Danish Air Force augment NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission with four additional F-16 fighter jets in Lithuania. A U.S. Pentagon spokesman said Monday the U.S. could also send troops to support NATO’s eastern allies.“The president has been very clear we’re not going to see American troops on the ground in combat with the Russians in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing Monday. “He has made clear that that’s not on the table.”

Instead, Kirby said, the deployments will be aimed at shoring up the U.S.’s “very real security commitments” to the NATO alliance, a Cold War-era pact that’s expanded to multiple countries formerly aligned with the Soviet Union. Kirby added that the U.S. is signaling to Russian President Vladimir Putin that threats against the alliance won’t be tolerated

“That’s not going to be acceptable,” he said. “And the United States will fight to defend our NATO allies and our commitments to our allies on the continent.”

The heightened alert means some of the 8,500 troops have been told to be prepared to deploy within five days instead of 10, said Kirby.

Kirby added that he didn’t have any announcements to make about where and when the troops will be sent, but that Pentagon staff was working on providing options for President Joe Biden. Any decision on troop deployment will be made in careful consultation with U.S. allies, he said.

When asked if there was any indication of threats to NATO members, Kirby said that the build-up on the Ukrainian border as well as in Russian ally Belarus has been concerning for U.S. allies. Kirby also stressed NATO is not intended to “contain Russia or threaten Russia.”

In addition to NATO’s mutual defense obligations, Kirby stated that the U.S. also has a commitment to the alliance’s 40,000 troop Response Force.

“We signed up for a certain amount of contribution to that,” he said. “It is not something that’s just off the shelf and you go grab it, so you want to make it shorter, tighter as possible. And that’s why we’ve alerted those extra 8,500 troops here in the states.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday while speaking at the Atlantic Council that members of the alliance have already deployed troops to Romania, as well as the Black Sea and Baltic Sea regions. He also said that for the first time in decades the alliance has a U.S. aircraft carrier under its command.

Stoltenberg called deploying NATO’s Response Force a “political decision” that will be assessed based on the need to increase the alliance’s presence in Eastern Europe.

Biden said Friday he would be moving troops to Eastern Europe but didn’t say how many or when.

“The President’s statement is consistent with what we’ve said all along about the need for force posture adjustments if Russia stays on an escalatory path, which it has,” a National Security Council spokesperson told Newsweek on Saturday. “As the President said, we will make any further announcements in the near future.”

Kirby didn’t have details on those troops but said they would be in addition to the 8,500 already on standby and could come from units already stationed in Europe.

Pentagon Says Troops on Heightened Alert, But Will Not Be Deployed to Ukraine (msn.com)