(RoyalPatriot.com )- While the United States isn’t sending military personnel to fight Russian troops directly in Ukraine, there are many troops being deployed to other Eastern European countries to help enforce NATO borders as the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalates.
On Thursday, a group of 40 troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, also known as the Sky Soldiers, were deployed to Latvia after leaving their home bases in Italy. The United States Embassy in Riga, Latvia, confirmed the deployment and said that it was part of a wider deployment of around 800 American troops into the Baltic regions. These are the region Soviet Republicans surrounding Russia that include Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
The three countries are part of NATO, the North American Treaty Organization.
President Joe Biden made it perfectly clear that the decision to deploy troops was not to go on the offensive or to fight against the Russians, but was a “defensive” effort designed to protect other countries from aggression.
It’s a strategic and yet insignificant move for the most part, but shows precisely why Russia didn’t want Ukraine to join NATO in the first place.
Had Ukraine joined NATO, it would have meant Russia would have had a much, much harder time invading the country.
Right now, Russia can invade Ukraine with relative impunity – at least, militarily speaking. Besides sanctions, Russia is taking over Ukraine with minimal fuss.
Had Ukraine joined NATO, however, the United States and Western nations would have been compelled to engage military – and that would literally have been World War Three.
Regardless, the deployment of troops to the Baltic states is unlikely to make Putin happy…so we’ll have to see how this one plays out.