
President Joe Biden has approved the deployment of nearly 3,000 American troops to eastern Europe in the coming days amid a standoff with Russia over Ukraine in what the Pentagon said on Wednesday was signal of U.S. readiness to defend NATO allies.
The deployments are above and beyond the 8,500 troops the Pentagon put on alert last month to be ready to deploy to Europe if needed. Together, the moves aim to reassure jittery NATO allies in the face of a Russian military buildup near Ukraine while avoiding new deployments to Ukraine itself, which is not part of NATO.