Russia has enough troops near Ukraine for full invasion, Pentagon says

WASHINGTON—President Vladimir Putin of Russia has deployed the troops and navy hardware wanted to invade all of Ukraine, the Pentagon’s high leaders mentioned Friday, as senior Protection Division officers warned that the tense standoff was main america, its NATO allies and Russia into uncharted territory.

Russia has assembled greater than 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s borders, the officers mentioned, publicly confirming for the primary time what intelligence analysts have described for weeks. These troops, Pentagon officers mentioned, have the flexibility to maneuver all through Ukraine, far past an incursion into solely the border areas.

Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin described an array of Russian infantry troops, artillery and rockets assembled on the Ukrainian border, which he mentioned “far and away exceeds what we'd sometimes see them do for workout routines.”

Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, was extra blunt: “I feel you’d have to return fairly some time to the Chilly Conflict days to see one thing of this magnitude.”

Their feedback got here as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine known as for calm, saying that discuss of an invasion may trigger panic and destabilize his nation’s economic system. However the Pentagon leaders, talking at a information convention that was dominated by the unfolding disaster, introduced a grim image, and Protection Division officers and Russia specialists have privately warned that a Russian invasion has the potential to begin a battle between Moscow and the West that would rapidly escalate.

Even when NATO shouldn't be drawn right into a wider battle, invading Ukraine may deliver carnage, Milley warned. “Given the kind of forces which are arrayed,” he mentioned, referring to the Russian troops and hardware on the border, “if that was unleashed on Ukraine, it might be vital, very vital, and it might end in a major quantity of casualties.”

He added: “You possibly can think about what which may appear like in dense city areas, alongside roads and so forth and so forth. It will be horrific. It will be horrible. And it’s not crucial. And we expect a diplomatic end result is the way in which to go right here.”

U.S. officers estimate that 35,000 Individuals are in Ukraine, together with 7,000 individuals who have registered with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the capital. Whereas the State Division has suggested Individuals to go away the nation and has ordered members of the family of embassy personnel to depart, Pentagon officers know nicely from their expertise in Afghanistan over the summer time that U.S. residents typically don't heed recommendation to go away.

Austin didn't rule out the chance that U.S. troops may be despatched to Ukraine to evacuate Individuals if Russia invades and there's fight within the streets of Kyiv. “No matter job america navy is known as upon to perform, we can be ready to do it,” he mentioned when requested if U.S. troops would enter Ukraine to evacuate Individuals.

However that's precisely the kind of state of affairs that officers worry may result in a possible miscalculation and escalation.

“When there’s conflict, the whole lot adjustments,” Michael A. McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, mentioned in an interview. “Accidents can occur, and planes can get shot down. Individuals in Ukraine may get killed. All these sorts of situations may occur, after which we’re in a distinct world.”

Austin has put 8,500 U.S. troops on excessive alert for attainable deployment to Jap Europe, the place most of them would be a part of a NATO fast response workforce of 30,000 to 40,000 troops. And whereas President Joe Biden has made clear that he has no intention of deploying U.S. troops to Ukraine to assist fend off an invasion, he indicated this week that he may individually ship further troops to Jap European allies which are apprehensive about Russian advances.

Biden mentioned Friday that he meant to maneuver U.S. troops to Jap Europe “within the close to time period,” including that “not lots” could be deployed.

The troops on excessive alert embody parts from the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina; the a hundred and first Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colorado, in addition to from bases in Arizona, Texas, Washington state, Louisiana, Georgia and Ohio.

Ukraine shouldn't be a member of NATO, so america has no treaty obligation to defend it. However the international locations within the alliance’s so-called jap flank — former Soviet satellites and the Baltic nations — are involved that they may very well be subsequent on Putin’s listing. The aim of the U.S. troops, if deployed, could be to reassure these NATO allies that whereas america may decline to enter a conflict with Russia over Ukraine, it is not going to hesitate to take action if a NATO member is attacked.

There are additionally indicators that Russia and its proxies are stirring up discord and confusion removed from Ukraine to distract america and its European companions.

Russian surveillance plane this week flew close to Al-Tanf, a navy outpost in Syria close to the Jordanian border the place some 200 U.S. troops are coaching allied Syrian militia members. Two Russian warships are within the Purple Sea ready to steam into the jap Mediterranean, the place a U.S. plane provider is conducting a naval train.

In West Africa’s Sahel area, supporters of a navy coup in Burkina Faso took to the streets this week waving Russian flags, exhibiting their need to pivot away from France, the previous colonial energy, and towards Moscow.

French officers instructed that the Russian Embassy could have paid the supporters to wave flags, because the Russians have achieved in Mali, a rustic north of Burkina Faso that just lately signed a deal to usher in a number of hundred Russian mercenaries to assist fight a rising Islamic insurgency there. France and several other different European international locations working in Mali have strenuously opposed the nation’s plan to recruit mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked agency.