On Wednesday, the U.S announced it will be deploying an additional 3,000 more military personnel to Eastern Europe after putting more than 8,500 personnel on “heightened alert” earlier this year.
The recent move by the Pentagon is most likely due to rising tensions in Eastern Europe. Although delegations from Russia and NATO have started to hold talks in order to solve the issue diplomatically, tensions are still high after NATO rejected Russia’s security demands.
The deployments will be made from U.S bases in Germany and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Moreover, NATO members have also started sending defensive weapons to Ukraine in the case of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, Russia denies that it has any plans to invade Ukraine.
As per Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the deployments are not permanent and the troops are there for defensive purposes to protect NATO and its allies.
These deployments occurred at Biden’s direction and following Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation. The Defense Department “will reposition certain Europe-based units further east, forward deploy additional U.S.-based units to Europe, and maintain the heightened state of readiness of response forces” to meet American commitments, a senior administration official said in Washington. “These forces are not going to fight in Ukraine. They are not permanent moves. They respond to current conditions.”
