According to President Joe Biden, the USA will soon move additional US troops to the Eastern European NATO countries because of the Ukraine crisis. It’s about “not too many” soldiers, Biden restricted early Thursday evening (local time) in Washington when returning from a visit to the state of Pennsylvania. He did not give any specifics as to how many soldiers there might be and where exactly they might be transferred and when.
“I will soon be moving troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries,” Biden said. On Biden’s orders, 8,500 soldiers in the United States were put on increased standby on Monday to enable rapid deployment if necessary. Biden had stressed that it was a precautionary measure to address concerns of Eastern European NATO members. No US soldiers would be sent to Ukraine. Tens of thousands of US soldiers are regularly stationed in Europe, including around 35,000 in Germany, even outside of times of crisis.
On Thursday afternoon (local time), US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated that there had not yet been any orders to relocate the soldiers. They are ready in the US, but have not yet been requested by NATO, Austin said at the Pentagon.
With a massive Russian troop deployment near Ukraine, there are fears in the West that the Kremlin may be planning an invasion of the neighboring country. However, it is also considered possible that fears are only being stirred up in order to persuade the NATO states to make concessions when demands for new security guarantees are made. Moscow denies plans for an alleged invasion.