The United States may deploy thousands of troops to Eastern Europe to counter Russian aggression.
Summary
The United States is considering sending thousands of troops to Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s threat to invade Ukraine.
- Biden is considering sending 3,000-5,000 troops, aircraft and naval vessels to Romania and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All are NATO allies. Troop levels could rise as high as 10,000-50,000 should the crisis spiral further.
- The US currently has 4,000 troops in Poland. There are 5,000 additional NATO troops are stationed in Poland and the Baltic states. Over 150 Green Berets and National Guard trainers are in Ukraine itself.
- NATO announced Monday morning it is putting its forces on standby and sending additional units to the East.
- The State Department made its evacuation order official Sunday. US diplomat’s families and non-essential personnel are instructed to leave the country. All US citizens in Ukraine have been warned to leave now.
- As conflict looms over Eastern Europe, Britain, France, and Germany’s strategies have only grown farther apart in recent days.
- Russia announced it will conduct naval war games off the west coast of Ireland. The Irish condemned the move as “not welcome.”
- The Washington Post reports the Biden Administration is considering a rarely used sanctions tool, the foreign direct product rule, to cripple critical Russian tech industries and limit imports of consumer electronics.
- The New York Times covered the “muscular role” the United Kingdom has assumed during the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Its announcement yesterday on Russian plots to oust the Ukrainian government comes on the heels of arms deployments and other aggressive moves against Russia.
- CNN scooped that the US is assembling a “global strategy” to increase gas production to offset gas shortages in Europe in the event of a Russian invasion.
- Fox News tells of aggressive maneuvers on the other side of the world. China deployed nearly forty fighter jets near Taiwan Sunday. This launch coincided with a US Carrier Strike Group cruise through the Philippine Sea.
- Elliot Abrams, Trump’s special representative for Iran and Venezuela, writes in National Review of a “Washington in Slumber,” totally unprepared for the coming world crisis.
- The Washington Examiner described Russia’s threats to Japan, after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised repercussions if Russia invaded Ukraine during a video call with President Biden.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
