US sends 3,000 more troops to Poland amid NATO’s military buildup in eastern Europe
The United States has announced it will deploy 3,000 additional soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Poland as part of NATO’s military buildup in eastern Europe, a move that is likely to increase further tensions with Russia.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday ordered the US troops be sent to Poland, increasing the number of American forces deployed to and repositioned to eastern Europe to 6,000.
Four US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Friday the US troop deployment will come from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and not from within American forces in Europe.
The troops will depart over the next couple of days and are expected to be in place by early next week, according to a senior US military official.
The order comes as the White House on Friday warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine could involve a military assault on Kiev, which is the seat of the Ukrainian government and the most populous city in the country with nearly 3 million people.
"We’ve been clear that it could take a range of different forms, but I want to be equally clear that one of those forms is a rapid assault on the city of Kiev," national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing.
This comes in an environment of massively heightened tensions, an intensive anti-Russian propaganda campaign by Washington, and deployment of forces and equipment throughout most of the former Warsaw Pact nations and three former Soviet republics that have joined NATO, with at least two others (Georgia and Ukraine) not yet admitted as formal members but who are involved in military cooperation, including hosting military assets, with the US and NATO.
Biden administration officials claimed Russia has assembled 110,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and is preparing for a "large-scale" invasion of the country, as the Biden administration keeps sending troops to eastern Europe to increase NATO military buildup there.
Last week, The Washington Post, citing a US military and intelligence assessment, reported that “Russia could seize Kiev in days and cause 50,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine.”
Russia has called the US intelligence assessment of a possible invasion of Ukraine “madness and scaremongering.”
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