President Joe Biden has authorized the Pentagon to send 3,000 reservists to Europe to bolster security on the continent as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
The Department of Defense, under Biden's order, may send up to that many troops from active duty units, as well as individual members assigned to a Selected Reserve unit or Individual Ready Reserve members, Fox News reported. No more than 450 troops may come from the Individual Ready reserve.
Biden's order follows pronouncements from NATO offering Ukraine modest concessions toward membership, though Kyiv publicly expressed intense frustrations that the alliance did not offer it membership outright or a timetable toward accession.
"It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fumed this week. "This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine's membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror. Uncertainty is weakness."
The NATO summit in Vilnius followed a largely unsuccessful counteroffensive effort by Ukrainian forces that saw them sustain considerable casualties and largely fail to reclaim significant territory from the Russians.
Related Story: Bipartisan Bill Aims to Keep U.S. in NATO
