Pentagon sends another 3,000 U.S. troops to Poland amid threat of Russian attack on Ukraine

4 yıl önce

The Biden administration will deploy 3,000 additional soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Poland, U.S. officials said Friday, amid mounting concerns that Russia could invade nearby Ukraine any day.

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The soldiers will join other personnel from their division sent to Poland last week from their home base at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive troop movements. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment Friday, and the soldiers are expected to move out over the next couple of days, a senior defense official said.

The deployment was first reported by the Reuters news agency.

The U.S. soldiers, comprising mostly infantrymen, will bulk up a force that had numbered around 1,700. They will fall under the command of Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, who has already arrived in Poland.

Another 300 soldiers from the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps also have set up a headquarters element — Combined Joint Task Force Dragon — in Germany. The operation is being led by Lt. Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla.

Combined, the 5,000 personnel comprise a “highly mobile and flexible force, capable of multiple missions,” the senior defense official said. “They are being deployed to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank, train with host-nation forces, and contribute to a wide range of contingencies.”

The top U.S. commander in Europe is Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, commanding general of U.S. European Command. About 80,000 U.S. troops are in Europe on either rotational or permanent assignments, Pentagon officials have said.