US President Joe Biden stated that the US would defend "every inch" of NATO's territory and thus ordered to move over 12,000 American troops and station them along the alliance's borders with Russia. He clarified that the troops had been deployed to Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, as well as other countries.
POTUS went on to elaborate, echoing his previous statements, that the US would not fight a "World War Three in Ukraine". However, he stressed that Washington still has a "sacred obligation" under the NATO treaty, and if Russia attacks one of its members, the US will respond, even if it means the start of a global conflict.
"We are going to continue to stand together with our allies to send an unmistakable message that we will defend every inch of NATO's territory, every single inch with the united, galvanised NATO".
NATO previously reported sending additional forces to its eastern flank amid fears that Russia might use its military in Ukraine.
Biden previously rejected a request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, stressing that it would likely prompt an armed conflict with Russia. POTUS insisted that such a conflict would essentially turn into a third world war, which could likely be a nuclear one.
Instead, the US president vowed to send Ukraine weapons in order to defend itself against Russia as the latter conducts a special military operation there. The operation was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February in response to a request from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) to defend them against Kiev's attacks.