More paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division will be part of a brigade that’s already been deploying to Europe as tensions with Russia continue.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday ordered the deployment of 3,000 additional troops to Poland as the crisis over Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine deepened.
The troops are part of the 82nd Airborne Division’s infantry brigade combat team, according to a senior Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
A spokeswoman for the 18th Airborne Corps, which the 82nd serves under, also confirmed Friday that additional soldiers are deploying to Poland.
“The timeline has not been released,” she said.
As part of the 82nd’s role as the nation’s Immediate Response Force, units in the division are always prepared to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours of notification
About 1,700 paratroopers from the brigade started deploying to Poland last week, and the rest of the brigade is expected to be there by early next week to help shore up NATO’s eastern flank.
During a news conference Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said not all 1,700 soldiers had arrived in Poland.
“It’s not even the whole unit itself,” he said.
He said the remainder of the 1,700 were expected to “flow in over the next few days.”
In late January,8,500 U.S. troops – including the 82nd Airborne Division — were put on heightened alert to support a quick-reaction force from NATO when, or if, it gets activated.
On Feb. 2, the Pentagon announced that 2,000 troops based in the United States were being deployed to Europe and others already in German would be sent to Romania.
About 1,700 from a brigade in the division are part of that 7,000 set to go to Poland, as the headquarters with the division’s higher command, the 18th Airborne Corps, has deployed to establish a joint task force in Germany.
“We said from the very get-go, that one of the reasons why we chose that unit is their multi-mission, and they’re on a high alert readiness posture as it is,” Kirby said Wednesday. “That’s their job, that’s what they do. And they do a lot of things really, really well. And they can do those things quickly.”
More:Fort Bragg 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers, 18th Airborne Corps soldiers head to Europe
More:18th Airborne Corps soldiers arrive in Germany amid Russian threat to Ukraine
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday while U.S. officials have not determined whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to launch an invasion, there is a “credible prospect” that a military action could occur before Feb. 20, when the Olympics conclude.
“We can’t pinpoint the day at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour, but what we can say is that there is a credible prospect that a Russian military action would take place, even before the end of the Olympics,” he said.
Sullivan reiterated a warning for U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave within the next two days. He emphasized there is no plans for a U.S. military evacuation and that choosing to stay means they are assuming risk “with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave.”
“The risk is now high enough and the threat is immediate enough that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now,” he said.
He said an invasion could take a range of different forms, including an assault on the capital city of Kyiv or moving on to other parts of Ukraine. Sullivan added that U.S. officials believe Moscow is looking to create a “false flag operation” as a pretext for military action, but declined to provide intelligence showing evidence of such a plot.
Here’s the latest in the unfolding crisis in Ukraine:
Blinken warns of ‘troubling signs of Russian escalation’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. continued “to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border.”
Blinken’s comments followed a day of meetings in Melbourne, Australia, where he met with his counterparts from the Quad coalition countries of Australia, India and Japan.
Russian troops conducted military exercises and drills for a second day near Ukraine’s borders, a move that raised concerns about whether Moscow is moving forward with an invasion.
“As we’ve said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time – and to be clear that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said.
The Associated Press and USA TODAY reporters Courtney Subramanian and Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this report.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3528.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism