The U.S. Marine Corps issued an order through its Marine administrative message service stating that its personnel are prohibited from traveling to Ukraine and the neighboring countries of Belarus and Moldova. This appears to be the first order of its kind by a U.S. military branch amid Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.Ukraine War: G7 Calls on Russia to Stop Military OperationsRead moreUkraine War: G7 Calls on Russia to Stop Military Operations
Captain Ryan Bruce, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps, confirmed to Newsweek that the new order applies to all Marines, including its reservists. A later statement provided by Marine Corps Spokesperson Major Jim Stenger said the goal of this order was to communicate the State Department's March 8 message directly to Marines.
"The purpose of this message was to put into a MARADMIN (a Marine administrative message) similar language that already existed elsewhere in the form of a State Department travel advisory and a message authored by the Commander of EUCOM," Stenger told Newsweek.
"I know I check MARADMINs more frequently than State Department travel advisories," he added, "so this was an attempt to communicate an important message to our Marines and Sailors directly."
