While the notion of American boots on the ground in Ukraine has been rejected as a nonstarter, it might become a reality as the Pentagon is weighing deploying special forces to guard the embassy in Kyiv.
Officials say the security of U.S. diplomats in the newly reopened Kyiv embassy is being weighed against the hesitation of American troops in a war zone amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Biden has yet to receive the proposal – with the sole intention of defending American diplomats – after he has rejected deploying American forces in the range of Russian missiles, officials told the Journal.
"We are in close touch with our colleagues at the State Department about potential security requirements now that they have resumed operations at the embassy in Kyiv," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement. "But no decisions have been made, and no specific proposals have been debated at senior levels of the department about the return of U.S. military members to Ukraine for that or any other purpose."
There remains a threat of Russian airstrikes on Kyiv and the special forces would be there to help evacuate Americans if attacks escalate again on the Ukraine capital city.
The State Department is currently defending the diplomats at the Kyiv embassy with the Diplomatic Security Service guards, having "put forward additional measures to increase the safety of our colleagues who are returning to Kyiv and have enhanced our security measures and protocols," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The plans range from sending dozens of special forces to the Kyiv embassy to keeping them on stand by to deploy them as needed, sources to the Journal.
Diplomats at the Kyiv embassy had been moved to Poland and special forces had stopped train-and-advise exercises in Ukraine before the Feb. 24 invasion.
Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has refocused to the east and south, particularly the Donbas region, after earlier forces failed to close in on Kyiv.
American diplomats have since returned to Kyiv with the assistance of Joint Special Operations Command, the first known U.S. forces to enter Ukraine since Putin's invasion, according to the report.
Putin had threatened world leaders to "not interfere" with his designed "special military operation" in Ukraine, making the sending of forces a potential escalation in the Russian leader's eyes.
The deployment of diplomats in Ukraine, along with security, is intended to help expedite aid and lethal weapons to the war-torn country, along with increasing U.S. intelligence, according to officials.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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