President Biden will deploy 3,000 more American soldiers to Poland, joining the 1,700 sent a few weeks ago, as a deterrence to Russian and Belarusian aggression against Ukraine, the AP reports.
Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan gave a very stark warning to Americans living in Ukraine: leave the country within the next 48 hours or be stranded because the US will not launch an evacuation plan, Yahoo News reports. “We encourage all American citizens who remain in Ukraine to depart immediately,” Sullivan said Friday. “We want to be crystal clear on this point: Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Officials have warned that Russia may launch an invasion of Ukraine by the end of the Olympics, which run for nine more days and have the world’s attention. Russia has more than 100,000 troops amassed along Ukraine borders with Russia itself, as well as in Belarus, and the small breakaway territory of Transnistria. There are an estimated 6,500 Americans currently in Ukraine.