Washington to deploy 3,000 troops to support NATO in Eastern Europe

“There may soon be additional posture decisions to announce, including movements that are a part of ongoing military exercises,” Kirby told reporters during a morning news briefing to announce the deployments. “This is not the sum total of the deterrence actions we will take, or those to reassure our allies.”

The troop movements coincide with increasingly hostile verbal exchanges between senior U.S. and Russian officials, with Moscow’s ambassador in Washington accusing the White House of “demonizing” Russia and lying about the Kremlin’s past activity in the region.

The announcement underscores the Biden administration’s effort to strike a balance between reassuring NATO allies seeking a greater U.S. military presence and avoiding missteps that could inflame an already delicate situation.

At the Pentagon, Kirby said the situation “demands” that the United States reinforce Eastern Europe. An Army Stryker unit of about 1,000 soldiers based in Germany will be deployed to Romania, Kirby said, joining about 900 U.S. troops already there. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the move last week with top Romanian officials, who extended an invitation, Kirby said.

About 2,000 additional U.S. troops from Fort Bragg, including members of the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, will be sent to Poland, Kirby said. Others within that group, including personnel from the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, are expected to establish a new headquarters in Germany that will oversee the operation.

Last week, about 8,500 U.S. troops were put on a heightened alert because of the crisis over Ukraine. Most of those personnel are expected to deploy if NATO activates for the first time it military response force, which would comprise troops from numerous countries. Such a deployment would require approval from all NATO members, although the United States or its partners may continue to order their own deployments as agreements are reached with individual countries in Eastern Europe.

While Biden has ruled out any combat deployment to Ukraine, it remains possible that U.S. troops could be directed to assist in the evacuation of American citizens and diplomats from that country — should such measures become necessary. About 200 members of the Florida National Guard remain in Ukraine, where they are providing training to local forces, and could be withdrawn quickly if necessary, Kirby said.

In the Ukrainian capital Wednesday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba downplayed perceived differences between Kyiv and Washington on the likelihood of an imminent military move by Russia. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seemed to chastise President Biden and the Western media for unsettling Ukrainians with the prospect of an impending incursion. Kuleba said the two governments agree that the situation is very dangerous.

“There are no divisions between me and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken, between President Zelensky and President Biden,” Kuleba told reporters. “The tone of voice of our voice may sound different, but the assessment is actually the same: We must prepare for every possible scenario.”

Earlier, Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, condemned White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s characterization of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a leader who has used chemical weapons and “invaded multiple countries in the past several years.”

Antonov claimed Moscow had a better record of compliance with international chemical weapons treaties, according to comments posted on the embassy’s Facebook page. He also criticized Washington’s “bloody experiments” to bring democracy to the former Yugoslavia, and to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those interventions brought the world “nothing but chaos, instability and loss of lives,” Antonov said. “We encourage our colleagues to look in the mirror more often before blaming or lecturing others.”

The sharp rhetoric followed the White House’s dismissal of Putin’s claim that Moscow would be forced into conflict with NATO if Ukraine joins the Western military alliance and attempts to take back Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.

That assertion was Putin’s latest effort to paint Ukraine and its partners in the West as the aggressors in the current crisis. The Russian leader also accused the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow’s security concerns.

Psaki, speaking at the White House on Tuesday, disputed that characterization.

“When the fox is screaming from the top of the henhouse that he’s scared of the chickens, which is essentially what they’re doing, that fear isn’t reported as a statement of fact,” Psaki said. “We know who the fox is in this case.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov retorted, saying Russia was a bear, not a fox, and “too big and heavy to climb on a henhouse.”

Moscow has long taken issue with NATO granting membership to countries in the former Soviet sphere, and it has demanded that the organization roll back its forces in Eastern Europe and promise that Ukraine will never join the alliance. NATO has refused to change its open door policy allowing countries to seek entry into the alliance, whose members are bound to defend each other against attack.

European nations have continued to shore up support for Ukraine. The Netherlands will ramp up cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine and extend a program to provide rehabilitation services to injured soldiers, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Wednesday in a joint statement with Zelensky, following their meeting in Kyiv Wednesday.

The United States and Britain are publicly considering imposing some of the toughest sanctions on Russia and on allies of Putin in an effort to deter the Kremlin from a renewed invasion of Ukraine.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Wednesday that Moscow was ready to defend itself against a threat to sever Russia’s biggest banks from dollar-dominated international financial networks.

“We have contingency plans, risk-hedging plans and plans to minimize consequences of the unpredictable steps,” Peskov told reporters.

Peskov also said there were no plans at present for further talks between Putin and Biden.

“It is always good when the presidents talk to each other. It always gives a good impetus to bilateral relations, but they do so when they deem it necessary,” Peskov said.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, suggested he would use that body to highlight the Minsk agreements as a political solution to the Ukraine crisis.

The peace deal was widely condemned by Ukrainians, and officials in Kyiv have warned that implementing it now would destabilize the country. The deal also called on Russia to end its interference in the region and withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border.