(RoyalPatriot.com )- According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the Pentagon is considering deploying US Special Forces to guard the US embassy in Kyiv, but no decision has been made as yet.
The US State Department had announced last Wednesday that the American flag is once again flying outside the US embassy in Kyiv and operations have returned three months after the embassy operations were moved out of Ukraine’s capital.
In a statement last Wednesday, Secretary of State Blinken announced the embassy’s reopening, vowing that the United States stands “proudly” with the people of Ukraine and will continue to support the government and the Ukrainian people “as they defend their country from the Kremlin’s brutal war of aggression.”
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement that Pentagon officials are in close contact with the State Department regarding the possible security requirements necessary now that the US embassy in Kyiv has resumed operations.
Kirby added that no decisions have been made at this time nor have senior department officials formally discussed returning military service members to Ukraine for this or any other purpose.
Currently, the US embassy in Kyiv is protected by Diplomatic Security Services. And while maintaining the safety and security of American diplomats is of paramount importance, some officials are concerned that deploying Special Forces to protect the embassy in Kyiv could be viewed by Moscow as an escalation on the part of the United States.
While US troops have been sent to Poland and Eastern Europe, the Biden administration has maintained that it does not plan to send any US military forces into Ukraine.
Two Republican lawmakers, Senators Jerry Moran of Kansas and Steve Daines of Montana, had asked the Secretary of State last month to reopen the embassy now that Russian forces had withdrawn from the area surrounding Kyiv. Several other foreign embassies had already restored operations in Kyiv, including the European Union, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
EU High Representative Josep Borell announced in early April that the EU’s embassy would restart operations during an April 9 visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
