President Joe Biden authorized U.S. military leaders to move 3,000 military reserve troops to active duty in response to the ongoing war with Ukraine and Russia.
In an executive order issued Thursday evening, Biden gave the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security authorization to augment U.S. military troops already serving overseas as part of the United States Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR).
“I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility,” Biden said in the statement from the White House.
Biden said the military units should not surpass a total of 3,000 troops, out of which, “not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve.”
Operation Atlantic Resolve is a program that was started in 2014 in order to strengthen the NATO alliance after Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, according to Military.com.
As part of OAR, the U.S. will “continue to demonstrate its commitment to the collective security” of its allies in NATO and continue to provide support for its “partners in Europe, in light of the on-going Russian intervention in Ukraine,” according to the program.
Biden’s order comes days after he vowed that the U.S. and the NATO allies would continue to provide President Volodymyr Zelensky with a united front against Russian forces.
Though Zelensky has continued to express frustration that Ukraine has been unable to join NATO, Biden has said Ukraine should wait until the war is over to join NATO.
“We will not waver. I mean that,” Biden said during his speech while visiting Lithuania. “Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken. We will stand for liberty and freedom today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes. We all want this war to end on just terms.”
During a press conference on Thursday, Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims explained the U.S. forces being moved to reserve “are not additional forces.”
Sims clarified that “these are forces that will augment what we already have there. So as an example, over time, where we may have had someone from an active-component organization doing something, that job now under these authorities may be something that a reserve component unit may be able to do.”
