U.S. troop deployment in the Baltics and Poland may be speeding up, according to statements by Poland and the United States Wednesday.
Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz made the announcement after meeting with the commander of U.S. land troops in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, in Zagan, Poland, where some of the troops will be deployed, The Associated Press reported. Orzysz, Poland, will get a U.S. battalion on April 1, the news service noted.
Hodges said troops from Fort Carson, Colorado, will arrive in the German port of Bremerhaven on Jan. 6 and be sent to Poland, the Baltic states and Romania.
"I'm confident in the very powerful signal, the message it will send (that) the United States, along with the rest of NATO, is committed to deterrence," Hodges said, per The AP.
Fort Carson's armored Third Brigade Combat Team, known as the "Iron Brigade," will be part of the soldiers moving to Poland, RT.com reported.
"With the Iron Brigade headed for Zagan, it appears its deployment will be in addition to the four battalions NATO had decided to permanently station in member states bordering Russia," RT.com said. "According to the decision reached at the alliance's Warsaw summit in July, some 1,000 U.S. soldiers currently stationed in Germany would be moved to Poland.
"… Some 2,000 British and Canadian troops would be stationed in Estonia and Latvia, respectively, while a 1,000-strong German-led armored battalion would be deployed in Lithuania, for the first time since (World War II). The reinforcements were supposed to be in place by April 2017," RT.com continued.
Tensions between NATO and Russian have been high since Russia annexed Crimea from the Ukraine in 2014. Earlier this month, the Ukraine announced that it conducted missile test over the Black Sea, west of the Crimean peninsula, the BBC News noted.
Russia, in turn, called the Ukraine's tests a provocation and threatened to shoot the missiles down, the BBC News noted.
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