China News Service, May 24 (Xinhua) According to comprehensive US media reports, on the 23rd local time, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Milley, said that the US Department of Defense is beginning to prepare to send US troops to Ukraine to protect the recently reopened US Embassy in Ukraine.
Employees of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine raise the American flag at the embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 18, 2022.
Milley said plans to send troops are underway, "but at a relatively low level."
The plan to send troops "has not been presented to Secretary of Defense Austin or myself, and has not yet detailed the line of action and what needs to be done."
Milley also added that any redeployment of U.S. troops to Ukraine would require approval from U.S. President Joe Biden.
The Wall Street Journal reported that this was a delicate move because it needed to balance the safety of U.S. diplomats with the need to avoid making Russia see it as an escalation.
Biden has always promised not to send U.S. troops to Ukraine to help Ukrainian troops.
Outside Ukraine, however, large numbers of U.S. troops are stationed in countries such as Poland and Romania.
About 102,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Europe, an increase of more than 30 percent since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Milley said.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said in a statement on the 18th local time that the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, had reopened on the 18th.
Blinken did not disclose the number of U.S. diplomats who have returned to Kyiv.
He said the Biden administration would take additional security measures to keep U.S. diplomatic personnel safe.