US military forces ‘fully prepared’ to cross into Ukraine
U.S. military forces are “fully prepared” to cross into Ukraine at a moment’s notice to fight a war against Russia.
The Army’s 101st Airborne Division, which boasts the “Screaming Eagles” moniker, has been deployed to Europe for the first time since World War II, practicing with live tank and artillery rounds not far from the Black Sea, across which Russia has taken territory from Ukraine, including Crimea, at a forward operating site on NATO’s eastern flank,
Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the division’s deputy commander, stressed this is “not a training deployment” but rather a “combat deployment” from which his forces “need to be ready to fight tonight, depending on how the situation escalates across the border.”
Col. Edwin Matthaidess, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, told the news outlet these troops are the closest U.S. unit to the fighting in Ukraine, still raging more than seven months into Russia’s full-scale invasion began. “It keeps us on our toes,” he said.