The US will deploy around 2,000 troops to Poland as part of measures to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank in response to potential Russian military moves toward Ukraine, the head of Warsaw’s National Security Bureau revealed on Wednesday.
Speaking to Polskie Radio 24, the country’s national public-service broadcaster, Paweł Soloch announced that the American troops arriving in his country would be part of a more significant deployment of 8,500 soldiers being sent to Europe.
According to the Bureau head, the move’s aim is two-fold; to reinforce the bloc from a military standpoint, and, crucially, to strengthen and develop the mechanisms in place for the further transfer of troops in the future.
The reveal follows US President Joe Biden’s announcement last month that America had made plans to send soldiers to Eastern Europe, specifically to the countries in the Bucharest Nine, which includes Poland. The Bucharest Nine was founded in 2015, and is an organization made up of nations formerly part of the Warsaw Pact. The US announced that these troops would be mobilized and deployed to NATO’s eastern flank at European members’ request, or “in other situations,” which could potentially mean an incursion by Russia into Ukrainian territory.