US President Joe Biden is to send extra troops to Europe this week amid continuing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon says.
NATO supply soldiers in Hohenfels, Germany as they prepare to move to their next deployment. Photo: AFP / US Army / Capt Alun Thomas
Some 2000 troops will be sent from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Poland and Germany, and a further 1000 already in Germany will go to Romania.
Moscow denies planning to invade but has deployed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders.
It fiercely opposes Ukraine joining the US-led NATO military alliance.
The tensions come eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and backed a bloody rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.
Moscow accuses the Ukrainian government of failing to implement an international deal to restore peace to the east - where Russian-backed rebels control swathes of territory and at least 14,000 people have been killed since 2014.
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The US troops being deployed will not fight in Ukraine but will ensure the defence of US allies.
Of the 2000 troops being sent from Fort Bragg, 1700 members of the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to Poland and the others will go to Germany.
Their deployment is in addition to the 8500 troops the Pentagon put on alert last month to be ready to deploy to Europe if needed.
"It's important that we send a strong signal to Mr Putin and, frankly, to the world that NATO matters to the United States and it matters to our allies," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
But on the question of alleged invasion plans by Putin, he said: "We still don't believe he's made a decision to further invade Ukraine."
He also said that a US proposal "leaked to a European news outlet" was genuine. He appeared to be referring to a story in Spain's El País newspaper about a US offer of talks with Russia on cutting back on nuclear weaponry and trust-building measures in exchange for reducing tensions over Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko described the US deployment as a "destructive" step which heightened tension and reduced the scope for a political solution.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine and security guarantees for Russia with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson by phone on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.
Earlier, on a visit to Ukraine, Johnson accused Russia of putting a "gun to Ukraine's head".
Putin has accused the US of trying to draw his country into a war in Ukraine.
He said America's goal was to use a confrontation as a pretext to impose more sanctions on Russia.
"It seems to me that the United States is not so much concerned about the security of Ukraine... but its main task is to contain Russia's development. In this sense Ukraine itself is just a tool to reach this goal."
Rivalry between Russia and the US, which still possess the world's biggest nuclear arsenals, dates back to the Cold War (1947-89). Ukraine was then a crucial part of the communist Soviet Union, second only to Russia.
Putin said the US had ignored Moscow's concerns in its response to Russian demands for legally binding security guarantees, including a block on the NATO alliance's further expansion to the east.
- BBC