The president of the United States, Joe Biden, said this Friday that “in the short term” will move US troops to Eastern Europe due to the crisis in Ukraine, although he assured that they will not be “too many”.
The president spoke in this way days after the Pentagon announced that it had put “high alert” to 8,500 soldiers, which are currently in US territory, for a possible deployment in allied countries in Eastern Europe.
“I will move US troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries in the short term. Not (there will be) too many”Biden said in remarks to the press upon landing on the outskirts of Washington after visiting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Biden gave no further details about it, and his comments came hours after the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, begged “We urge Russia to withdraw and to seek a resolution through diplomacy.”
Tension has increased between Russia, the US and their allies due to the mobilization of 100 thousand Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine, which has raised fears of a possible Russian attack on Ukrainian territory, which Washington believes may be “imminent.”
The Pentagon has reiterated that it is not going to send troops to Ukrainian soil and has insisted that, if deployed, the bulk of the soldiers it has in “high alert” they would do it within NATO; and it has not ruled out using the military that it already has deployed in bases in Europe.
Among the 8,500 on alert on US soil are combat teams and infantry units, including the 82nd Airborne Division and the 18th Airborne Corps of the US Armed Forces, the Pentagon reported this week.
The first belongs to the Infantry and is specialized in parachute assault operations. The Department of Defense usually uses it to respond to crises anywhere in the world in a time interval of 18 hours.
The second is capable of rapid deployment by air, land or sea, also in emergency situations.
Also on “high” alert are the 101st Airborne Division, a light infantry unit specializing in air assault operations, and the IV Infantry Division, with combat forces.
The latter has, among others, three combat teams, a combat aviation brigade and an artillery division.
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