US President Joe Biden announced that Washington would boost its military presence at Russia’s doorstep with more troops that would be moved to the countries in Eastern Europe in the near future. The US leader made the remark while speaking to the media on Friday evening.
Biden gave updates on the situation in Ukraine after he emerged from Air Force One.
Asked about if he had already decided “how soon” he “would be moving US troops to Eastern Europe”, Biden reportedly said that he would sent a small number of American servicemen to the region “in the near term.”
“I’ll be moving US troops to Eastern Europe in (or he possibly says and) the NATO countries in the near term. Not a lot,” CBSNews’ Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang reported.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that some 8,500 American troops have been placed on “heightened alert” to deploy to Eastern Europe.
Speaking at a briefing earlier on Friday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that these troops would be used to “reinforce security on NATO’s eatern flank”, adding that a hypothetical Russian attack would face “unified” response from the US-led military block. While Ukraine is not a NATO member, Austin warned Moscow about retaliation in case it attacks a member of the alliance, saying: “An attack against one NATO member is an attack against us all.”
He, however, appeared to rule out involvement of US troops in any military action in Ukraine itself. Biden “does not intend to put troops into Ukraine for combat operations”, the Pentagon chief said.
Russia has consistently denied that it has been gearing up to invade Ukraine, and has signaled no intention of attacking any member of the military block.
While US media and some politicians in the West have been warning of an “imminent” invasion, claiming that Russia has been “amassing” troops on the border with Ukraine to strike any minute, it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who stepped in to pour some cold water on the speculations.
Speaking to foreign media on Friday, Zelensky blasted the media coverage as “slightly imbalanced” accusing the media of stirring up panic. “Today we are not seeing any greater escalation than it has been before,” he noted.
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