rules if you can t do it. all right, andy. thank you very much. what a night. a massive shift in the russia-ukraine crisis. the biden administration is considering deploying several thousand u.s. troops, along with warships to nato allies in eastern europe. it s a move that would signal a significant pivot for the boughs as fears on of a russian invasion are going. cnn s barbara starr is joining us on this reporting of yours, barbara. tell us what s happening here. good morning, brianna. we have already seen the biden administration order the drawdown of nonessential personnel at the u.s. embassy in kiev. but now what is the next step? over the weekend, a number of military options were presented to president biden at camp david. he is now mowing them over. the idea is these options would call for potentially thousands of u.s. troops to be put into the baltics, into eastern europe. think poland, romania, the
presence in eastern europe. along that eastern flank, so what we know now is the pentagon is working on a series of military options for president biden to consider if it comes to that. it could involve repositioning troops already in europe. it could also involve bringing troops from other places, from the united states into europe to beef up along that eastern area. think poland, romania. these are the countries that are nervous. these are the countries that want some reassurance and the u.s. wants to use troops if it comes to that, as a deter republicans against russia. the big problem, of course, is how do you know when you re successful military teily, when russians pack up and go? doesn t seem like they re going to do that anytime soon. but the pentagon always thinking, they are looking at options. we are learned a couple of hours
let s talk about this now with foreign european affairs director retired lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. thank you for being with us to talk about this. this is really a pivotal time as we look at president biden considering this potential military move. what do you think about this? i think it s the right thing to do. we have to remember that this isn t the context of the russians positioning some 100,000 plus estimates, 120,000 troops on ukraine s border. and 10,000 or more into belarus. now, if you have them on the ukrainian border, that still puts hundreds of miles between russian troops and nato forces. once you put them into belarus, that s right on the border of several nato countries. else stoneeo, latvia, lithuania and poland, estonia.
kyiv, around kyiv, and all parts of ukraine, as ukrainian people continue to fight, stand up, but so many forced to flee. clarissa, thank you so much for that. the u.s. military is continuing to step up its support of ukrainian forces, a senior pentagon official telling cnn the u.s. and nato so far sent the ukrainian military thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. cnn s barbara starr live at the pentagon this morning and you have brand-new reporting on what the united states is considering now to do to help nato allies. well, those anti-tank, anti-air missiles have gone into ukraine for those forces to try and challenge the russian forces and push them back, but now, a question arising at the pentagon, what do they do about air defense for the nato allies on the eastern flank? think poland, romania, the baltics. and what we re told here at cnn is they are considering, nothing official, no formal proposal but