Joe Biden said on Friday that he would send a small number of American soldiers to Eastern Europe “soon” amid tensions with Moscow over Ukraine. “I will send American troops to Eastern Europe and NATO countries soon. Not a lot, ”the American president told reporters when he got off the plane, returning from a trip to Pennsylvania.
The United States has already placed 8,500 soldiers on alert to reinforce NATO. Joe Biden has however said and repeated that there was no question of sending American troops to Ukraine, which is not a member of the military alliance.
Sending troops to eastern countries would be an additional means of pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the Americans believe could attack Ukraine in February. Joe Biden’s statement comes at the end of a day of all-out exchanges which left a path open for a diplomatic settlement of tensions.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Westerners not to sow “panic” around the risk of a Russian invasion of his country, while Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron agreed on the ” need for de-escalation”.
