WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert Monday to potentially deploy to Europe as part of a NATO "response force" amid growing concern that Russia will soon make a military move on Ukraine. President Joe Biden consulted with key European leaders, underscoring U.S. solidarity with allies there.
Putting the U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for Europe suggested diminishing hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back away from what Biden has said looks like a threat to invade neighboring Ukraine.
At stake, beyond the future of Ukraine, is the credibility of a NATO alliance that is central to U.S. defense strategy but that Putin views as a Cold War relic and a threat to Russian security. For Biden, the crisis represents a test of his ability to forge a united allied stance against Putin.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said about 8,500 U.S.-based troops are being put on alert for possible deployment -- not to Ukraine but to NATO territory in Eastern Europe as part of an alliance force meant to signal a unified commitment to deter any wider Putin aggression.
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Russia denies that it is planning an invasion and says Western accusations are merely a cover for NATO's own planned provocations. Recent days have seen high-stakes diplomacy that has failed to reach any breakthrough, and key players in the ordeal are making moves that suggest fear of imminent war.
Biden has sought to strike a balance between actions meant to deter Putin and those that might provide the Russian leader with an opening to use the military force he has assembled at Ukraine's border.
Biden held an 80-minute video call with several European leaders on the Russian military buildup and potential responses to an invasion.
"I had a very, very, very good meeting -- total unanimity with all the European leaders," Biden told reporters at the White House. "We'll talk about it later."
The White House said the leaders emphasized their desire for a diplomatic solution to the crisis but also discussed efforts to deter further Russian aggression, "including preparations to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia for such actions as well as to reinforce security on NATO's eastern flank."
A day earlier, the State Department had ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country, and it said nonessential embassy staffers could leave at U.S. government expense.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, said the U.S. decision was "a premature step" and a sign of "excessive caution." He said Russia was sowing panic among Ukrainians and foreigners to destabilize Ukraine.
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Britain said it, too, was withdrawing some diplomats and dependents from its Kyiv Embassy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said an invasion is not inevitable but "the intelligence is pretty gloomy."
Ordering even a modest number of American troops to be ready for potential deployment to Europe is meant to demonstrate U.S. resolve to support its NATO allies, particularly those in Eastern Europe who feel threatened by Russia and worry that Putin could put them in his crosshairs.
"What this is about is reassurance to our NATO allies," Kirby said at a Pentagon news conference, adding that no troops are intended for deployment to Ukraine, which is not a member of the alliance but has been assured by Washington of continued U.S. political support and arms supplies.
The Pentagon's move, which was done at Biden's direction and on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's recommendation, is being made in tandem with actions by other NATO member governments to bolster a defensive presence in Eastern European nations.
FORCES ON STANDBY
In a statement before Kirby's announcement, NATO said Monday that some member countries were putting their forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to Eastern Europe to reassure allies in the region.
The NATO announcement Monday consolidated pledges and actions that member states have made over the past several days. They include an offer by France to send troops to Romania under NATO command; Denmark sending F-16 jets to Lithuania; the Netherlands sending two F-35 jets to Bulgaria to help with air policing; and Spain sending a frigate to the Black Sea.
NATO members bordering Russia and Belarus, or near the contested Black Sea in the south, have asked for more allied troops and equipment to build up deterrence against any potential aggression by Russia.
That would be in addition to the 5,000 or so NATO troops already stationed in Poland and the three Baltic nations that were installed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in what NATO called an "enhanced forward presence."
There was no indication in NATO's statement Monday that any additional forces deployed in Central, Eastern or Southern Europe would be used to support Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, in the event of a Russian invasion.
Western officials have made clear that NATO forces would not engage militarily against Russia, and the Biden administration has said that goes for the United States as well.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, said in a statement that NATO would "continue to take all necessary measures to protect and defend all Allies, including by reinforcing the eastern part of the Alliance." The statement added: "We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defense."
The Response Force was enhanced in 2014 -- the year Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and intervened in support of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine -- by creating a "spearhead force" of about 20,000 troops on extra-high alert within the larger Response Force.
If NATO does decide to activate the Response Force, the United States will contribute a range of military units, Kirby said.
"It is a NATO call to make," Kirby said. "For our part, we wanted to make sure that we were ready in case that call should come. And that means making sure that units that would contribute to it are as ready as they can be on as short a notice as possible."
He said some units will be ordered to be ready to deploy on as little as five days' notice. Among the 8,500 troops, an unspecified number could be sent to Europe for purposes other than supporting the NATO Response Force, he said. Without providing details, he said they might be deployed "if other situations develop."
Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border, demanding that NATO promise to never allow Ukraine to join the alliance and that other actions, such as stationing alliance troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was NATO and the U.S. who were behind the escalating tensions, not Russia.
"This all leads to tensions rising," Peskov, said in reference to the moves by NATO to strengthen its eastern flank. "This is not happening because of what we, Russia, are doing. This is all happening because of what NATO and the United States are doing."
The NATO announcement came as European Union foreign ministers sought to put on their own fresh display of unity in support of Ukraine and paper over concerns about divisions on the best way to confront any Russian aggression.
In a statement, the ministers said the EU has stepped up sanction preparations and warned that "any further military aggression by Russia against Ukraine will have massive consequences and severe costs."
Information for this article was contributed by Robert Burns, Lorne Cook, Yuras Karmanau, Dasha Litvinova, Geir Moulson, Aritz Parra, Jill Lawless, Lolita C. Baldor, Aamer Madhani, Mike Corder and Raf Casert of The Associated Press; and by Michael Schwirtz and Steven Erlanger of The New York Times.