Biden weighs sending 5,000 troops to Eastern Europe to counter Russia

Biden weighs sending 5,000 troops to Eastern Europe to counter Russia

Transcript¹

The Biden administration is considering a plan to send several thousand additional U.S. troops into NATO countries in eastern Europe, near both Russia and Ukraine.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

People in the capital of Ukraine now know that Russian military forces are within a short drive. Russian troops already occupy part of southern Ukraine. They have long been at the eastern border, where Russia is. And now they are at the northern border, not too far from the capital, Kiev. For the record, Russia denies it plans an invasion. But President Vladimir Putin has made a lot of demands of the United States, which is supporting the current government of Ukraine. And the U.S. is preparing to respond, shipping² weapons to Ukrainian forces. That started over the weekend. Also over the weekend, President Biden has begun considering whether to send several thousand additional U.S. troops to NATO countries near Russia.

We're going to begin our coverage³ this morning with NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre.

Greg, good morning.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE⁴: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: How many U.S. troops would go where if this deployment⁵ happened?

MYRE: So according to U.S. officials, Biden is considering sending up to 5,000 U.S. troops to NATO's countries in Eastern Europe. Now, there are some caveats⁶ here. The president has not reached a final decision. But this is the plan that emerged when he was at Camp David over the weekend and spoke⁷ with his national security team. We also don't know exactly where these U.S. troops might be sent. Poland and Romania are seen as likely options. They both border Ukraine. Possibly other countries could be involved as well. And a new development this morning - NATO says that several countries are putting additional forces on standby and sending some additional ships and fighter jets to existing NATO deployments in Eastern Europe.

INSKEEP: Now, you've said we don't know exactly where they're going. We do know one place they're not going. The U.S. has said they're not sending troops into Ukraine itself. So explain this for us. What does it do to send troops into other countries in Eastern Europe?

MYRE: Well, it's seen as a defensive⁸ move, but it's also seen as the U.S. and NATO posing a direct challenge to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. One of his big demands is that NATO remove relatively⁹ small numbers of troops that already are present in Eastern Europe. And the Kremlin is already responding today. Putin's spokesman says that the U.S. and NATO are escalating¹⁰ tensions with this kind of talk, that they're whipping up hysteria. And, of course, as you mentioned, Russia claims that it had no plans to invade Ukraine.

INSKEEP: And that word hysteria is one the Russians have used a lot. But the U.S. and its allies have continued insisting there are Russian preparations for an invasion. And they've issued warnings about things that might happen. The U.S. the other day talked about some kind of false flag operation in eastern Ukraine that Russia could use as an excuse to invade. And then Britain took an unusual step - going public with some intelligence over the weekend about Russia's reported plans. What are they saying?

MYRE: Right. They said that Russia is planning to oust¹¹ Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and replace him with some former Ukrainian officials who would be friendly toward Russia. Now, Britain didn't say how Russia might do this. It didn't provide details. Still, it really is very significant that Britain would go public with this kind of sensitive information, apparently¹² to head off any such Russian moves. And we have seen additional Russian military troop movements in recent days, including into Belarus, which is a friendly country. And if you go to the southern border of Belarus, the northern border of Ukraine, you're within a hundred miles of Ukraine's capital, Kiev.

INSKEEP: How are diplomatic efforts going as all of these military moves are made or discussed?

MYRE: Well, they're still alive. But the developments in the past few days haven't been great. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there will be additional diplomatic efforts. They will respond to some of the Russian demands in writing. But the U.S. has essentially¹³ rejected those - the Russian demands of no NATO troops in Eastern Europe or no Ukraine in NATO.

INSKEEP: NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre is with us.

Greg, thanks. We'll continue listening for your reporting.

MYRE: My pleasure.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

3 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 caveats   

警告

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling. 为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。 来自辞典例句
• As I have written before, that's quite a caveat. 正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。 来自互联网

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

9 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

10 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

11 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。