U.S. Troops On 'Heightened Preparedness', NATO Announces Major Deployment

Pentagon reveals number of US troops on higher alert over Ukraine

RT

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has placed 8,500 troops on “heightened preparedness to deploy” to Europe in case NATO decides to activate its rapid-response force over the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday.

The troops have been placed on “higher alert only” and “no final decision has been made to deploy them,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

The deployment may happen if and when NATO decides to activate its rapid response force (NRF), which consists of about 40,000 troops from various member countries. Kirby said the US maintains “significant combat capable forces forward in Europe to deter aggression.”

Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported that the White House was considering a plan to send between 1,000 and 5,000 troops to the Baltics and Eastern Europe as a way to deter Russia from “invading” Ukraine. US intelligence has claimed an invasion was imminent since late October. Moscow has dismissed the accusation as “fake news.”

While there is no specific mission for the troops that have been alerted, Kirby said the Pentagon hopes to be able to deploy “additional brigade combat teams, logistics personnel, medical support, aviation support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” if required.

Meanwhile, the US has sent more military aid to Ukraine last week than ever before in a single year, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. He added that the US will submit its written response to Moscow’s security proposals sometime this week. 

NATO announces major new deployment

NATO members will order more fleets and fighter planes into Eastern Europe amid a worsening standoff with Russia, with the bloc citing reports that Moscow is building up troops on its side of the Ukrainian border.

In a statement issued on Monday, the US-led military faction’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that he welcomed the commitment of “additional forces to NATO,” vowing that he will “continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all Allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the”bloc.

According to his comments, a handful of member states have made announcements that they will step up their current or upcoming deployments, including Denmark, which is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and four fighter jets to Lithuania “in support of NATO’s long-standing air-policing mission in the region.”

Spain and France are focusing on southeastern Europe, with Madrid reportedly contemplating dispatching ships to “join NATO naval forces and is considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria.” Meanwhile, Paris “has expressed its readiness to send troops to Romania under NATO command.”

Embassy Evacuations & European Troop Deployments: How US-Led 'Militarism' Makes Ukraine Crisis Worse

After months of media panic over Russia's alleged "invasion" of Ukraine, the US appears to have upped the stakes by contemplating new military deployments in Eastern Europe and starting embassy evacuations from Kiev along with the UK and Australia. Observers believe that the US' actions are a "psy-op" that is fraught with risks of a real standoff.

"It’s a psychological operation aimed at influencing respective publics’ opinions and justifying the actions by US and UK governments to escalate an unnecessary and avoidable conflict further by sending 90 tonnes of lethal military aid from the US to Kiev," says Adriel Kasonta, a London-based foreign affairs analyst and former chairman of the International Affairs Committee at Bow Group, a conservative think-tank in the UK.

The US and UK rhetoric about “Russian invasion threats” creates "a false sense of insecurity" to gain public approval for a harder - yet completely unjustified - stance towards Moscow, according to the foreign analyst. Half of Britons told an Ipsos MORI poll they are already expecting Russia to “invade” Ukraine in 2022.

At the same time, US President Joe Biden is considering additional deployments of troops, warships, and aircraft to NATO allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states over the alleged threat of Russia, according to a Sunday report by the New York Times. The Biden administration’s options, according to the publication, include sending between 1,000 and 5,000 troops to Eastern European countries, with the potential to step up this number tenfold if “things deteriorate”.