Following the Pentagon's announcement on Monday that 8,500 military personnel have been placed on "alert status" for a possible military deployment in Eastern Europe, thousands of families are preparing with concern for this operation that would force soldiers to fly in less than 72 hours to a scenario complicated by Russia's threat to invade Ukraine "imminently", according to the White House.
Wives, mothers and family members of soldiers at the North Carolina Fort Bragg military facility, where the US Immediate Response Force is housed, have been
encouraged to make the most of time with their families before deployment
, reports the local television station WRAL.
Military sources assured the aforementioned media that the combat team of the 3rd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, prepared for rapid reactions, could be mobilized.
Ukrainian servicemen from the 25th Air Assault Battalion in Avdiivka, Ukraine. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The Army's public information officer said, however, that Fort Bragg is not contemplating any deployment of troops, according to local television channel ABC 11.
"It's a little scary not knowing how long he's going to be [there] and if I'm going to be able to talk to him or anything," said Kim Brown, wife of soldier Dawson Brown.
Brown and her husband have been married for just seven months and
this would be the first time they have been separated over a mission.
“It's a little nerve-wracking not knowing if [my husband] is going to come back or not,” she added.
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For Patricia Geddie, mother of a daughter in the Navy and an Army veteran son, the situation is like "being caught in the middle of something
we have no control over
."
[Half of Ukrainians believe a Russian attack is imminent]
Geddie, however, said he has the experience to deal with his children's deployment, if it comes to pass.
"In my opinion, we're going to fight there to fight someone else's war... I know that's what they're in the Army for, to fight for our country, but they're going to fight for someone else's country," he said.
A possible diplomatic solution
During the press conference on Monday, John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, assured that "a mission has not yet been assigned, nor has a mobilization order been issued."
Kirby also explained that soldiers have been instructed to shorten the time to be ready to mobilize:
now they will have to do it in five days instead of 10
;
but that does not mean that they should be deployed in five days, according to the local newspaper The Fayetteville Observer.
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The president, Joe Biden, met by videoconference this Monday with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and said that it was "a very, very good meeting" and that there is "total unanimity from everyone" on how to act.
NATO leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission;
the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenbergel;
and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel;
They underlined
their common desire to find a diplomatic solution
to the current tensions, although they also do not rule out imposing strong economic sanctions on Russia to dissuade it from invading Ukraine.
The State Department ordered this Sunday the relatives of employees of the embassy in Kiev to leave it and
authorized the departure of diplomatic employees in Ukraine
who were not in an emergency situation.
