President Joe Biden is sending troops to Poland, Germany and Romania in response to rising tensions over Ukraine, a US official has said.
The Pentagon is expected to announce on Wednesday that the troops will deploy “in the coming days,” CNN reported.
The deployments will reportedly include 2000 troops to Poland and an additional few thousand to other NATO countries, including Romania and Germany. More than 8000 troops in the US have been put on heightened alert should they need to be sent to Ukraine.
It comes as Boris Johnson was finally set to speak to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after the Russian president accused the West of trying to drag his country into a war in Ukraine.
A phone call between the two leaders had been planned for Monday but was postponed as the Prime Minister faced a stormy session with MPs over the “partygate” affair.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops close to the border of Ukraine, fuelling fears the country is set to launch an invasion.
Mr Johnson was expected to urge Russia’s leader to step back after accusing him on a visit to Kiev yesterday of effectively “holding a gun… to the head of Ukraine”, and warning that an invasion would be a humanitarian and military “disaster”.
But on Tuesday night, Mr Putin defiantly accused the US and its allies of ignoring its security demands, in particular his concern that Ukraine could join Nato. “It seems to me that the United States is not so much concerned about the security of Ukraine… but its main task is to contain Russia’s development,” he said in his first comments on the stand-off in more than a month.
“In this sense, Ukraine itself is just an instrument to achieve this goal,” he said.
“This can be done in different ways, by drawing us into some kind of armed conflict and, with the help of their allies in Europe, forcing the introduction against us of those harsh sanctions they are talking about now in the US.”
He suggested Nato members could be dragged into a war with Russia if Ukraine were granted its wish to join the Western military alliance.
“Imagine that Ukraine is a Nato member and a military operation [to regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014] begins,” Mr Putin said. “Are we going to fight with Nato? Has anyone thought about this? It seems like they haven’t.”
Cabinet minister Michael Gove dismissed claims the UK’s international reputation had been damaged after Mr Johnson had to postpone the call with Mr Putin amid the partygate storm.
Asked about reports on Russian TV that ridiculed the Prime Minister, Mr Gove told Sky News: “The Prime Minister is leading the West’s efforts in order to ensure that we defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity against Putin. So of course he is going to be attacked in Russia.
“The Prime Minister was welcomed in Ukraine yesterday because our commitment to provide assistance to Ukraine shows we are standing tall for democracy. I wear as a badge of pride the fact that Russian television is attacking our Prime Minister.”
