White House approves plan to help Americans leave Ukraine if Russia invades

by Gordon Lubold | UPDATED Feb 09, 2022 08:24 AM EST

US military to set up outposts and tent camps inside Poland’s border to help Americans leaving Ukraine

WASHINGTON – The White House has approved a Pentagon plan for US troops in Poland to help thousands of Americans flee Ukraine in the event of a Russian attack, as the Biden administration tries to avoid a chaotic evacuation in Afghanistan. does.

Some 1,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Corps are being deployed to Poland to set up checkpoints, tent camps and other temporary facilities inside Poland’s border with Ukraine in the coming days, US officials said. . Officials said the troops were not authorized to enter Ukraine and would not evacuate Americans or fly aircraft missions from inside Ukraine.

Instead, the mission would be to provide logistical support to help with the evacuation of Americans from Poland when they get there from Kiev and other parts of Ukraine, possibly without land and US military aid, officials said. Officials said roughly 30,000 Americans are in Ukraine, and if Russia strikes, some of them as well as Ukrainians and others will want to leave quickly. Russia has been building up troops along Ukraine’s border for months, and Western officials have said an invasion could happen within weeks, while the Kremlin has said Russia does not plan to invade Ukraine.

Describing the current plan on Ukraine, defense officials said, it commemorates the rapid evacuation of more than 100,000 Americans and Afghans by US and allied forces in Kabul last August to end the US war in Afghanistan. it was done.

Some of the same military commanders who were part of the Kabul mission are now leading US efforts around Ukraine.

“Everyone living in the evacuation from Afghanistan felt it was remarkable, but also chaotic. It was a messy, messy retreat. We don’t want a chaotic withdrawal from Ukraine,” a defense official said.

Other officials said such an evacuation plan is a prudent measure regardless of the Afghan experience, which, US officials said, poses a different set of challenges than Ukraine.

In Afghanistan, the administration scrambled to deal with the Taliban’s takeover of power over the country and the rapid catering of the US-backed Afghan government and military. When the capital was coming under the control of a hostile power, US forces were to be sent to Kabul to increase troops on the ground to evacuate thousands of American citizens and diplomatic personnel and Afghans.

U.S. officials said that Ukraine’s government and military, on the contrary, are unlikely to collapse like Afghanistan, with Russia launching a full-scale offensive. Instead, US officials and military experts see Russia as more likely to occupy parts of Ukraine and the incursion could play out in the long term.

The White House rejected comparisons to Afghanistan.

“I think it’s really important to separate the two” [nations.] We are not in a 20-year war with US troops in Ukraine. It’s a very different situation,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. “We continue to look at our relationship with the White House, with the diplomatic team and with the Defense Department as one where we coordinate closely. are doing.”

State Department officials did not comment on the Defense Department’s preparedness in Poland, but advised that Americans living in Ukraine be urged to leave the country. The department has also authorized the departure of some US embassy staff and directed family members to leave.

Preparing for the evacuation is one of several possible tasks assigned to forces that the US began deploying last week to those closest to North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, especially Russia and Ukraine. In addition to troops from the 82nd Airborne Division in Poland, the US Army’s 18th Airborne Corps is setting up a task force headquarters in Germany, while an Army Stryker unit is being sent to Romania.

Russia has about 100,000 troops near Ukraine, with additional forces conducting exercises in Belarus and stationed in the Black Sea. US officials estimate that Russian President Vladimir Putin has 70% of the forces to launch a full-scale invasion.

Mr Putin has demanded that the US and NATO accept Ukraine as a final member and withdraw the alliance from Eastern Europe. He said in December that Moscow was ready to take “counter-military-technical measures” if the West continued its “offensive line”.

At least two generals, who played a major role in the evacuation of Afghanistan, are part of the plan on Ukraine.

Army Major General CD Donahue, who was in charge of evacuation from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and was the last American to step on a military jet and leave Afghanistan, now leads forces in Poland as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. are. Officials said arrived over the weekend.

Air Force General Jacqueline van Ovost, who in August headed Air Mobility Command and led the US evacuation plan for Kabul, is now in charge of US Transportation Command, which coordinates transportation for US military missions around the world. .

Last spring and summer, Pentagon officials insisted on shrinking the size of the sprawling embassy complex in Kabul, which was larger than more than 4,000 people, and to prepare for the evacuation of the thousands of Afghans whose lives were threatened by Americans. His association with the army and the government was put at risk. On 20 years of struggle. However, diplomats and others within the Biden administration feared such moves would undermine confidence in the Afghan government, and did not plan accordingly, according to officials at the time.

As with Ukraine, removing the Americans before any Russian move would signal to Mr Putin that the US sees an invasion and that diplomacy to avert conflict would be futile, US officials said. At the same time, many fear that if Russia invades, the Americans may be trapped.

This week, the US military released its investigation into the August 26 attack outside the AB Gate of Kabul airport that killed 13 US soldiers. In a 2,000-page document first reported by The Washington Post, some military commanders expressed frustration at the State Department and the White House for not planning a non-combatant evacuation operation, or NEO, anytime soon.

“The embassy did not fully participate in the NEO plan until a week before the fall,” a commander told investigators, referring to the evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul.

Mr Biden, asked if Americans should leave Ukraine, said he hoped they would. “If I were them, if I had someone there, I’d say leave,” he said on Monday.