8500 US-based personnel may be sent to the region. Carrots and Sticks are still involved. Stranger still are reports of Erik Prince involved with private armies in Ukraine and attempts to divide NATO support for what will be a serious response to a Russian incursion beyond Donbas. The current trope is the comparison of Russian air assets and Ukrainian air defense, since an attack on Ukrainian infrastructure will be a major component of an early offensive.
Russia, with an estimated 100,000 troops poised for a possible move across the border into Ukraine, is demanding written guarantees that Kyiv will never be allowed to join NATO. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that it has any plans to invade.
The U.S. has been equally adamant that Ukraine should make its own decision on whether to join the alliance formed in 1949, originally as a bulwark against Soviet expansion in Western Europe.
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Among them, sending 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European countries and the Baltics, "with the potential to increase that number tenfold if things deteriorate," according to the Times.
There are no plans to send more Americans into Ukraine itself, according to the paper.
The Biden administration has held back on more aggressive actions, for fear of inciting a Russian invasion.
So far, U.S. aid to Ukraine has largely come in the form of military equipment. A Biden administration shipment of aid — close to 200,000 pounds of "lethal aid" including ammunition — arrived in Ukraine on Sunday. In October, the U.S. sent Ukraine 30 Javelin anti-tank guided missile systems.
There are already more than 150 U.S. military advisers in Ukraine, the Times reported, though they are far from any potential front lines and would likely leave the country quickly after a Russian invasion.
www.npr.org/...
meanwhile:
McDonald’s has delivered sad news for breakfast bagel and wrap lovers, announcing that the popular food items have been removed from its menu permanently.
In a statement shared to its Instagram account on Monday 24 January, the fast-food chain said its breakfast bagels and breakfast wraps will not be returning to stores.
www.independent.co.uk/...