Marines will now be among the many 1000’s of U.S. troops who’ve been deployed to Europe and the japanese fringe of the NATO alliance in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
About 200 Marines from a command-and-control unit for Marine Air Management Group 28 primarily based at Cherry Level, North Carolina, have been despatched to Lithuania, following a chilly climate train in Norway, the Pentagon mentioned Tuesday. A few Marine Corps C-130 Hercules transport plane and 10 Marine F-18 Hornet fighter jets from Beaufort, South Carolina will probably be repositioned to Jap Europe.
The most recent deployment comes as Russia seemed to be pulling again and repositioning its invasion forces following weeks of stiff resistance by Ukraine, and the Pentagon claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin had “failed” in his effort to grab the capital Kyiv.
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The Pentagon has 14,000 troops already deployed to Europe, positioned with allies akin to Poland, Germany and the Baltic states, or on high-alert for potential deployment. On Monday, it introduced that six Navy EA-18G Growler plane primarily based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state have been despatched to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.
“It isn’t a few quantity objective, it is actually about capabilities and it is primarily based on fixed conversations with our NATO allies on the japanese flank,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby mentioned throughout a briefing on Tuesday.
The Marine and Navy deployments have been performed unilaterally by the U.S. and weren’t a part of the NATO Response Power, which is an elite multinational drive of 40,000 troops that features the U.S. and was lately activated by the alliance.
Marines are arriving to bolster the NATO alliance, and like all of the U.S. troops now within the area won’t battle the Russians in Ukraine. President Joe Biden has made clear that the U.S. won’t get entangled militarily until a member of NATO is attacked, however his administration has despatched over $1 billion in weapons and navy assist to Ukrainian forces amid the Russian onslaught and imposed heavy sanctions.
The Russians mentioned on Tuesday they have been withdrawing troops from round Kyiv amid peace talks with Ukraine aimed toward ending the unprovoked invasion that started on Feb. 24. However the Pentagon was skeptical of the declare.
“We consider that it is a repositioning, not an actual withdrawal, and that all of us ought to be ready to observe for a significant offensive towards different areas of Ukraine. It doesn’t imply that the risk to Kyiv is over,” Kirby mentioned. “Russia has failed in its goal of capturing Kyiv, it has failed in its goal of subjugating Ukraine, however they’ll nonetheless inflict huge brutality on the nation, together with on Kyiv.”
— Travis Tritten will be reached at travis.tritten@navy.com. Observe him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten.
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