There have been no official requests on this topic to the U.S. President, the head of the Pentagon and the head of the Committee of the General Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Pentagon and Department of State officials are discussing the possibility of sending special forces troops to Kyiv to ensure the security of the reopened U.S. embassy. As The Wall Street Journal noted on Sunday, if such a decision is approved, the contingent will only be engaged in protecting the mission.
In addition, plans are being discussed to restore the presence of American Marines, who usually guard U.S. diplomatic missions around the world. At the same time, the newspaper notes, there have been no official requests on this issue to U.S. President Joe Biden, Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin and head of the U.S. Armed Forces Staff Committee Mark Milley.
The presence of forces in Ukraine will mean an escalation compared to Biden’s initial statements that the United States will not send military personnel to Ukraine, the newspaper draws attention. At the same time, some representatives of the military department would like to return to Ukraine special forces engaged in the training of the Ukrainian armed forces. At the moment, the Diplomatic Security Service at the Department of State is engaged in the protection of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
As John Kirby, then the Pentagon press secretary, stated on May 19, the U.S. Department of Defense is ready to discuss with the Department of State the issue of strengthening the protection of the American embassy in the Ukrainian capital. On May 18, the U.S. authorities resumed the work of their embassy in Kyiv after a three-month break, and took additional measures to ensure the safety of the diplomatic mission staff. In February, the United States temporarily moved the embassy from Kyiv to Lviv. Later, the Department of State reported that the bulk of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Ukraine works in Poland. On May 2, the U.S. Embassy returned from Poland to Lviv.
