GIs to Ukraine is a possibility
The Biden administration declined Monday to rule out sending US forces to Ukraine as new satellite imagery emerged showing Russian forces gathering at strategic points along its border with Ukraine, possibly in preparation for an invasion.
The photos, provided to Fox News by Maxar Technologies, show troop and equipment buildup in western Russia and in Crimea, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
When asked about the likelihood of American forces on the ground in Eastern Europe hours after the images were released, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “I’m not going to get ahead of the president’s conversations with our transatlantic partners, which is going to happen later [Monday] afternoon.
“But I would say that our objective here . . . is conveying diplomatically that this is the moment for Russia to pull back their military buildup at the border.”
Later Monday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby also declined to rule out dispatching US forces.
“I’m not going to get ahead of decisions one way or another that the administration may or may not make here,” said Kirby. “As you know, President Biden will be calling and talking to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin tomorrow. I think we need to let that conversation happen.”
Kirby did note that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was being kept “keenly and closely informed . . . about what we continue to see [which] is added capability that President Putin continues to add . . . military capability . . . around Ukraine.” Kirby said that US military advisers had previously been sent to Ukraine on a “rotational” basis, but declined to say how many are in the country.
Psaki said Saturday in announcing the call between Biden and Putin that the two leaders would discuss “US concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States’ support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
On Friday, Biden told reporters he was “putting together what I believe to be, will be, the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do.”
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the tensions along the RussiaUkraine border will be the primary focus of the Biden-Putin call and described relations between the US and Russia as “lamentable.”
“They will need to discuss how the understandings they reached in Geneva are being implemented, to review what is being fully implemented, and what needs extra work,” Peskov told reporters.
“Of course it [the agenda] is bilateral relations, which remain in quite a lamentable state. And then it’s the questions that loom large . . . Primarily tension around Ukraine, the theme of NATO advancement towards our borders, and President Putin’s initiative about security guarantees,” he said.