The U.S. has repeatedly stated its unwillingness to send American troops to the war in Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean that that they would never be called upon to engage Russian forces on another front.
A “secret document” outlines plans for just such an eventuality, in fact, according to The U.K.’s Daily Telegraph.
The outlet cited an interview by German newspaper FAZ with a senior officer in the Bundeswehr — the German military — in which a few details about the ongoing planning were revealed.
German Lt. Gen. André Bodemann said a “new, long-term security plan” currently in development would rely heavily on civilians to supply logistical support to a hypothetical U.S. armored division moving through its territory.
“If, for example, a US division moved towards the east, thousands of tanks, thousands of soldiers, then they would need to be fed and the tanks refuelled or possibly repaired,” he said, according to the Daily Telegraph. (A modern U.S. armored division would include more than 10,000 soldiers, but only a few hundred tanks.)
By moving “towards the east,” Bodemann was apparently anticipating a deployment of American troops through Germany to Poland or the Czech Republic. East from there lie Belarus, Ukraine … and eventually Russia.
However, such a move would also most likely come after German troops were already deployed to or across Germany’s borders. Thus, the general explained, his country’s military logistics units would already have their hands full.
“That means we would need the maximum input from the civilian service,” he told FAZ.
“The convoy would get fuel from petrol stations or civilian vehicles, the Red Cross would provide medical care and food would come from a civilian caterer,” he said, calling this plan “the classic case.”
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The Daily Telegraph noted that Germany had been working toward a goal of increasing its wartime readiness in anticipation of a ground war with Russia against NATO forces before the decade’s end.
“While he did not elaborate on which eastern front Germany would be defending, Nato officials are increasingly concerned about Vladimir Putin launching an incursion on Nato’s eastern flank if his forces eventually claim victory in Ukraine,” the outlet reported.
The leader of all of Germany’s military forces, Gen. Carsten Breuer, had previously said his country was “on the right track” to achieve its readiness goals.
“[I]n my role as the chief of defence, it is the paramount importance of achieving the readiness of Germany’s armed forces within the next five years. We call this kriegstüchtigkeit – being ready, capable and willing to fight,” Breuer said in February, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Also in February, however, President Joe Biden’s administration reiterated its commitment not to send U.S. forces to Ukraine after French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out such a deployment.
Biden “has been clear that the US will not send troops to fight in Ukraine,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement cited by Agence France Presse at the time.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added that the only American troops in Ukraine were at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and tasked with making sure that U.S. military aid was distributed properly.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that U.S. troops would not be deployed even for non-combat operations such as training.
“We’re not sending boots on the ground in Ukraine. The president’s been very clear,” Miller told reporters at the time, according to the AFP.
