White House Insists US Troops Not Going to Ukraine After Biden Gaffe in Poland

Biden's comments to US troops in Poland suggested that they might be entering Ukraine

On Friday, the White House said US troops will not be going to Ukraine after President Biden addressed members of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Poland and suggested that they might be entering the war zone.

Biden told the troops that regular citizens in Ukraine were “stepping up” in the face of the Russian assault. “And you’re going to see when you’re there. And you — some — some of you have been there. You’re going to see — you’re going to see women, young people standing — standing the middle of — in front of a damn tank, just saying, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground.,'” he said.

When asked if US troops would be deployed to Ukraine, the White House told Fox News that Biden’s position has not changed. “The president has been clear we are not sending US troops to Ukraine and there is no change in that position,” the White House said.

Biden has repeatedly that he has no plans to send US troops into Ukraine to fight Russia and has acknowledged that direct fighting with Moscow means World War III. But he is still flooding weapons into Ukraine, which are entering via the Polish border. There are currently about 10,000 US troops in Poland, more than half of which were sent recently.

In his address to the troops in Poland, Biden used Cold War-style language for the current conflict, framing it as a battle between “democracy” and “autocracy.”

“Ten, 15 years from now in terms of our organizational structures, the question is, who’s going to prevail? Are democracies going to prevail and the values we share? Or are autocracies going to? That’s really what’s at stake. So what you’re doing is consequential, really consequential,” Biden said.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.