U.S. puts 8,500 troops on high alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks throughout a briefing on the Pentagon in Washington, Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

Manuel Balce Ceneta, Related Press

The Pentagon has put 8,500 troops on alert for doable deployment to Jap Europe, a transfer that may enhance NATO ally forces amid Ukraine tensions with Russia, The Related Press experiences.

The information: U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin issued the ready-to-deploy order, per CNN.

• Austin mentioned the “bulk of” the troops will look to enhance numbers for NATO’s fast response drive.
• The drive “consists of a extremely succesful joint multinational drive in a position to react in a really brief time to the total vary of safety challenges from disaster administration to collective protection,” based on NATO.

Nevertheless: Austin mentioned he needed to be “postured to be prepared for another contingencies as nicely.”

Quote: “That is actually about reassuring the jap flank of NATO, and it’s additionally about ... proving how critically america takes our dedication to NATO and to the Article 5 dedication inside NATO,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby mentioned Monday, per Axios.

Flashback: Over the weekend, a number of experiences mentioned the Biden administration was contemplating sending troops to Baltic international locations as tensions between Russia and Ukraine proceed.

• “The choices embrace sending 1,000 to five,000 troops to Jap European international locations, with the potential to extend that quantity tenfold if issues deteriorate,” per The New York Occasions.
• “Poland, Romania and different international locations neighboring Ukraine” had been instructed as international locations to obtain troops, based on NBC Information.

What to know: Russia has amassed greater than 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border, which has fueled tensions between the 2 international locations. There’s an ongoing perception amongst worldwide officers that Russia may invade Ukraine.

• The U.Ok. authorities Saturday accused Russia of attempting to interchange Ukraine’s present authorities with a pro-Moscow administration, The Related Press experiences.