Joe Biden sends in 3000 troops as standoff with Russia over Ukraine intensifies

US president shores up NATO defences in Eastern Europe as Pentagon says ‘strong signal’ must be sent to Vladimir Putin.

NATO soldiers during an exercise on Monday at the US garrison at Hohenfels in Bavaria, Germany. Picture: AFP

President Joe Biden has ordered more than 3000 US troops to Eastern Europe to shore up NATO defences as the tense standoff between the US and Russia over Ukraine intensifies.

After a decision last week to put 8500 US troops on standby, the US will send 2000 soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Poland and Germany, defence ­officials said on Wednesday, while another 1000 troops will be re­positioned within German units in Romania.

“As long as (President Vladimir Putin) is acting aggressively, we are going to make sure we reassure our NATO allies in eastern Europe that we’re there,” Mr Biden said on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) after the deployments were announced.

In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said the move would make it harder for a compromise between the two sides, calling the US deployments “destructive steps, which increase military tension and reduce scope for political decision”.

The moves are intended to deter Russia, which has refused to remove more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, from attacking Ukraine and avert a war in eastern Europe, a senior US ­official said earlier. “They are trained and equipped for a variety of missions during this period of elevated risk,” he said, adding the deployment was “meant to deter the threat against the alliance, we are literally willing to put skin in the game”.

The announcement came one day after Mr Putin said the US and its European allies had “basically ignored” Moscow’s demands that Ukraine be barred from NATO and the Cold War organisation ­revert to its “1997 status quo”. “We didn’t see an adequate response to our key concerns,” Mr Putin said on Tuesday at the Kremlin, arguing Russia had been “swindled, basically lied to” about the eastwards expansion of NATO. “Hopefully we will eventually find a solution – although it isn’t simple, we are aware of this.”

The Biden administration and the French and UK governments have tried but so far failed to find a diplomatic solution to Russia’s posturing near Ukraine, which ­intelligence and defence experts expected to be a prelude to an invasion of the former Soviet state, as soon as this month, following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. The US and Europe have talked up a barrage of economic sanctions they would put on the Russian economy and certain Russian individuals, including the President himself, should Russia attack. Penalties would include bans on the export of critical goods to Russia and other financial sanctions.

US President Joe Biden has sent more than 3000 US troops to shore up NATO defences in Eastern Europe. Picture: AFP

Mr Putin will head to Beijing for the start of the Winter Olympics on Friday, a trip presumed to reduce the likelihood of an imminent ­invasion of Ukraine so as not to insult President Xi Jinping.

Separately, Russia mocked British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss overnight for not apparently knowing the difference ­between the Baltic and Black seas, amid souring relations between the two countries. “If anyone needs to be saved from anything, then it is the world from the stupidity and ignorance of Anglo-Saxon politicians,” said Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AFP

Mr Biden signed off on the ­latest military proposals after meeting on Tuesday with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley.

Some of the new forces could be used in the event the US wanted to help evacuate the roughly 30,000 Americans now living in Ukraine, the officials said. Should that be needed, the troops were unlikely to be sent inside Ukraine to do so and instead would facilitate an evacuation operation by land along the Ukraine border.