US, NATO, UK Not Likely Send Troops To Ukraine If Russia Invades

By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: February 1, 2022 06:45PM UTC
Last Modified: February 1, 2022 06:45PM UTC

EUROPE - The United States, NATO and Britain have now stated that they will not likely be sending troops to Ukraine if Russia decides to invade the country.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the NATO alliance will not be sending any troops to Ukraine if Russia carries out an invasion on the country.

"We have no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine...we are focusing on providing support," Stoltenberg told the BBC during an interview on January 30. "There is a difference between being a NATO member and being a strong and highly valued partner as Ukraine".

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby made it clear that the United States would not be sending soldiers to Ukraine by saying, "The President has been very clear, we're not going to see American troops on the ground in combat with the Russians in Ukraine".

Instead, the United States and Britain have both threatened heavy sanctions in Russia decides to carry out an invasion that they say will cripple Russia's economy.

Britain is publishing new legislation this week that would broaden economic sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine according to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss.

"What the legislation enables us to do is hit a much wider variety of targets. So there can be nobody who thinks that they will be immune to those sanctions," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News on January 30. "Any company of interest to the Kremlin and the regime in Russia would be able to be targeted so there will be nowhere to hide for Putin's oligarchs, for Russian companies involved in propping up the Russian state".

Truss is traveling to Russia this month to discuss the situation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but said that it is 'very unlikely' that British troops will be sent to Ukraine to fight in the event of a war.

U.S. Senators are close to passing a sanctions bill that may include penalties on Russia even if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not decide to invade Ukraine

Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez stated on Sunday that the draft legislation puts forward sanctions 'up front' to punish Russia for cyberattacks that it allegedly carried out on Ukraine, as well as 'false flag operations' and efforts to undermine the Ukrainian government.

If Russia decides to invade Ukraine 'later on' then it would trigger 'devastating sanctions that ultimately would crush Russia's economy' he stated on CNN's "State of the Union".

The White House hasn't officially stated support for the bill however and said that deterrence works best when there's an element of surprise.

"one of the things about sanctions is once you trip that, then the deterrent effect is lost" Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby stated on "Fox News Sunday".

"So we’ve said financial measures, we’ve said export controls, we’ve said new sanctions on Russian elites" Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland stated on the CBS program "Face The Nation". "But if we put them on the table now, then Russia will be able to start mitigating and that doesn’t make any sense to us".

"We are working intensively with the Congress on this piece of legislation that we expect will be very well aligned with what we are also building with our NATO allies and partners" she stated.