Joe Biden to send troops to Eastern Europe in ‘near term’ amid Ukraine tensions

Name: US predicts Russia will ‘move in’ on Ukraine as UK and Canada send arms and special forces
Uploaded: 2022-01-28T23:52:21.000Z
Duration: 2 min 30 s
Description: US predicts Russia will ‘move in’ on Ukraine as UK and Canada send arms and special forces

The US force will bolster Nato’s presence in the region in face of a potential Russian invasion

Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, but Washington fears spillover into neighbouring countries if Moscow attacks

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

An Ukrainian serviceman watches an armoured personnel carrier get in position in the Luhansk area on Friday. Photo: AP

Agence France-Presse

Published: 7:52am, 29 Jan 2022Updated: 10:39am, 29 Jan 2022

US President Joe Biden on Friday sought to maintain pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, announcing a small troop deployment to eastern Europe even as top Pentagon officials backed a renewed push for diplomacy.

As President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western leaders to avoid stirring “panic” over the massive Russian troop build-up on his country’s borders, Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed on the need for de-escalation.

Neither Putin nor his Western counterparts had until now appeared ready to give ground in the weeks-long crisis, the worst in decades in the region between Russia and western Europe.

02:30

US predicts Russia will ‘move in’ on Ukraine as UK and Canada send arms and special forces

But according to a Macron aide, Putin told the French leader in a call lasting more than an hour that he had “no offensive plans”.

In Washington, Biden nevertheless said he would soon send a small number of US troops – “not too many” – to bolster the Nato presence in eastern Europe as tensions remain heightened.

The United States already has tens of thousands of troops stationed across mostly western Europe.

At the Pentagon, top officials urged a focus on diplomacy while saying that Russia now had enough troops and equipment in place to threaten the whole of Ukraine.