Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorised the deployment of 500 additional US troops to three locations in Europe over the weekend as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed the deployment on Monday at a press conference and explained that the US units would be sent to four locations in Romania, Germany, Greece and Poland.
The Pentagon asserted that the reason for the deployment was a desire to deter Vladimir Putin and Russia’s military from making incursions on Nato territory.
“[T]hese assets ... will prove helpful to our ability to make sure that we're protecting Nato airspace,” a senior defence official told reporters on a background call on Monday morning.
“These additional personnel are being positioned to respond to the security environment caused by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and certainly to help reinforce and bolster deterrence and defence capabilities of the Nato alliance,” added Mr Kirby during his briefing.
He went on to note that the deployment, along with others made by the US in recent weeks, “are not permanent moves, these are temporary moves” that he indicated would be reversed were the Russian military to cease its aggression in Ukraine.
The deployment comes as the Kremlin on Monday spelled out its conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, with one being that Ukraine cease its bid to join either the European Union (EU) or Nato, both of which President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has openly petitioned for membership and support.
The Russian invasion, meanwhile, is by most reports encountering major resistance from Ukraine’s military and still remains unable to capture most major population centres in the country while its forces in some areas are stalled completely or even losing previously-gained ground.
Mr Kirby noted on Monday that the frustration of the Russian military has led to morale issues across its forces, and said that information the US government has seen suggests that many of Russia’s troops did not know they were being deployed for an invasion of Ukraine before they arrived in enemy territory.
"[T]hey are having morale problems, they are having supply problems, they are having food problems, they are having fuel problems,” said Mr Kirby, ticking away all the issues the Russian military was facing.
"It is not clear to us that all of the soldiers that Russia has put into Ukraine realised that that's what they were doing,” he continued.
Russia’s invasion continues as the west and the Biden administration in particular work to isolate Moscow on the world stage and in the global economy through brutal sanctions targeting top Russian financial institutions and other companies, as well as Vladimir Putin and members of his inner circle.
Efforts have been made to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs connected to Mr Putin but some of that work has been somewhat frustrated by the global system of tax havens through which billionaires and other wealthy persons shield their assets from authorities in nations like the US.
