Leaks stir GOP outrage over US troops at embassy in Ukraine

Some Republican lawmakers are expressing outrage over a leaked document showing 14 American special forces are stationed in Ukraine, even though the Pentagon has said for months a small team of Marines is stationed at the embassy.

A few far-right figures are even using the news to push a broader conspiracy about a larger presence of U.S. troops in Ukraine, which they say poses the risk of direct fighting between American and Russian forces.

But the Biden administration says the U.S. troops are providing security and helping with oversight of American weapons in Ukraine — an effort that Republicans have pushed to increase.

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who shared his criticism on Twitter, told The Hill that the U.S. presence in Ukraine is opening the door to “mission creep.”

“They’re not there to pull audits to determine where money has been allocated. And they’re not there to just try and protect the embassy,” Mills, member of the House Armed Services Committee, said of the U.S. troops, without citing any evidence. 

“I just think there needs to be more transparency, and that’s the thing that’s frustrating every one of us,” he added. 

The Pentagon, however, said it has been transparent about the small number of troops in Ukraine. Deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the information is “not new” during a Monday briefing.

“We publicly acknowledged previously that there is a small U.S. military footprint in Ukraine to provide mission-critical support to the U.S. embassy,” she said. “To be clear, there are no U.S combat troops conducting combat operations in Ukraine.”

Singh said troops were providing security detail at the embassy and auditing the billions of dollars in military equipment flowing to Ukraine from Washington.

The trove of classified documents allegedly leaked online by Jack Teixeira, an airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has provided fuel to opponents of continued U.S. support for the country in its fight against Russia.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a fierce critic of supporting Ukraine militarily, drew widespread criticism after she tweeted that Teixeira was being unfairly treated by the Biden administration and had rightly exposed information about the Ukraine war and the American forces in the country.

One document said there were 14 soldiers with the U.S. special forces in Ukraine — along with dozens of other military personnel from Western countries — which was in line with previous public statements from the Pentagon. 

The Defense Department first confirmed it was weighing plans to send U.S. special forces to Ukraine in May 2022, shortly after the U.S. embassy reopened in the country.

In November, the Pentagon’s press secretary, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said Marines were there to assist the embassy, particularly with security and inspections.

“These are not combat squads that are going out,” Ryder said at a press conference at the time. “These are personnel that are going out in areas where they’re not going to be in harm’s way to conduct these types of inspections.”

Still, some Republicans have seized on the document and accused the Biden administration of dishonesty when it pledged it would not put boots on the ground in Ukraine’s fight against Russia. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution this week that would force the Defense Department to disclose how many troops it has in Ukraine.

“The Biden Administration and other allied countries have been misleading the world on the state of the war in Ukraine,” Gaetz said in a statement. “There must be total transparency from this administration to the American people when they are gambling war with a nuclear adversary by having special forces operating in Ukraine.”

The resolution is unlikely to gain much traction at the moment, with frustration over the U.S. troops in Ukraine largely contained among more conservative lawmakers.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said he would have to look into U.S. troop presence more, but argued it was “overwhelmingly in the United States’s best interest that Russia not win this war.”

“In my opinion, military advisors and special forces are those that are trained to see what the current circumstances are,” he said.

Other Republicans — including Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — said they wanted more transparency around U.S. troops in Ukraine, but he didn’t criticize the limited military presence currently in the country.

But conservative media has amplified the fears about troops in Ukraine. 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson leaned into the fight last week when he falsely claimed American soldiers are directly fighting Russian forces, calling it a “hot war between the two primary nuclear superpowers on Earth.”

And members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are pushing for action over the issue. 

On Sunday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), a caucus member, called to subpoena Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

“We must demand answers, under oath, as to why they have permitted iPOTUS Biden to lie directly and repeatedly to the American people about our operations in Ukraine,” he tweeted. 

Another caucus member, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), told Fox Business last week he would soon send out a letter requesting more information from the Biden administration.

“It continues to show this expansion of intervention that our country has in Ukraine,” Rosendale said of the U.S. military presence. “A lot of people are going to have problems with that.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a first-term congresswoman, said troops were “obviously” in Ukraine for protection of the embassy, but she shared concerns of her fellow House Freedom Caucus members.

“There are some answers that I think members of Congress are worried [about] getting,” she said. “I think that goes to show that this administration isn’t exactly forthcoming.”