President Biden reiterated Tuesday that the US would not deploy troops to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, telling members of Congress gathered for his State of the Union, “Let me be clear — our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.”
Instead, the President said, American troops were deployed to Europe not to fight in Ukraine, “but to defend our NATO allies in the event that Putin decides to keep moving west.”
“For that purpose, we have mobilized American ground forces, air squadrons, ship deployments to protect NATO countries including Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia,” he added.
Previously, Biden has said the US would hold fast to NATO’s Article 5 principle, which says that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all member counties—in Tuesday’s remarks, he pledged, “As I’ve made crystal clear, the United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory of NATO countries with the full force of our collective power.”
For Ukraine, the President touted “more than $1 billion in direct assistance to Ukraine,” including military, economic, and humanitarian aide from the US and allies.
