The United States has put on alert “elevated” to 8,500 soldiers before the increase in tension with Russia by Ukraine, although it has not yet taken any decision on its deployment in Eastern Europe, the Pentagon reported on Monday.
The spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, explained at a press conference that with this measure those military units, most terrestrial, will be at less time ready in case Russia decides to move towards Ukraine.
“We are not deploying them now, we are not saying that diplomacy has died,” said Kirby, who added that being in “elevated alert” is cut out the time of preparation to deploy ten to five days.
Spokesman emphasized that the bulk of US troops would be deployed in Eastern countries in Europe within the NATO’s response force (NRF), so they would activate only if the Atlantic Alliance what
Requests.
Kirby explained that it depends on NATO to activate that multinational force, which consists of terrestrial, aerial and maritime effectiveness, and that has about 40,000 military from different countries.
However, the spokesman for the Pentagon did not rule out a possible US deployment “unilateral” outside the NRF, although he insisted that in that case it would always be in coordination and after consultations with the Allies.
Asked about in which places the US deployment would occur, Kirby did not offer details and it was limited to saying that it would be at allied nations of the East Flank of NATO.
And he explained that the US contingent would be composed of combat brigades, who would have the support of logistics, medical and aviation equipment, among others.
The White House confirmed this Monday that it had approached with its European allies a possible deployment of US troops in Eastern Europe.
“We have been consulting with our allies and detailing the plans for all scenarios, we have always said that we would reinforce our allies on the East Flank and have been arguing with our partners during the last weeks,” said government spokesman Jen Psaki
, at a press conference.
This Monday, US media had informed that the administration of President Joe Biden would be wearing the deployment of thousands of US soldiers in the countries of the NATO Eastern flank.
