Elite US troops have landed in Poland near the Ukrainian border as tensions between Russia and the west continue to mount.
President Joe Biden has ordered the deployment of 1,700 soldiers to bolster forces already stationed in the area.
They are facing more than 100,000 Russian troops which have amassed on the other side of the border, despite Vladimir Putin’s continued assurances he is not planning to invade.
Troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived at the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, 56 miles into Poland, with hundreds more expected to follow.
A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster plane brought a few dozen troops and vehicles.
Their commander is Major General Christopher Donahue, who was the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan on August 30.
‘Our national contribution here in Poland shows our solidarity with all of our allies here in Europe and, obviously, during this period of uncertainty, we know that we are stronger together,’ Mr Donahue said at the airport.
In Warsaw, Polish defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak hailed the deployment, saying that ‘deterrence and solidarity are the best response to Moscow’s aggressive policy, to the aggressive attempt at reconstructing the Russian empire’.
Russia has been conducting joint military exercises in Belarus in recent days after diplomatic efforts to diffuse the situation failed.
The deployment of US troops is part of Nato’s collective response to the situation which has also seen warships sent to the region.
This is ‘the best response to a threat, the only method of assuring security to Poland and to other Nato countries on the alliance’s eastern flank’, Mr Blaszczak said.
He stressed he has held a number of talks on the subject with US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin.
The division – whose history dates back to 1917 – can rapidly deploy within 18 hours and conduct parachute assaults to secure key objectives. They are usually based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Earlier in the week, US planes brought equipment and logistics troops in preparation for the arrival of part of the division to the airport.
Polish soldiers have previously worked together with the US division on missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and have trained together, according to Major Przemyslaw Lipczynski, a spokesman for the Polish Army’s 18th Mechanised Division.
Some 4,000 US troops have been stationed in Poland since 2017 on a rotating basis, as a security boost in the face of Russia’s increased military activity.
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