More than 12,000 US troops currently reside in Poland. Warsaw and its Baltic Allies desire more.
The US ambassador to Poland revealed on Thursday that there are 12,600 of America’s military personnel in the EU member state at the moment, the largest number in history. As NATO conducts massive exercises on Ukraine’s doorstep, Poland and the Baltic states have asked for even more troops, according to documents leaked to the press earlier.
“I am very grateful to Poland for hosting so many American troops on its territory. 12.600 troops are currently on Polish territory. This is more than ever before in history,” Polish media quoted Ambassador Mark Brzezinski as saying on Thursday, during his visit to NATO’s Defender Europe 22 military exercises.
Polish soldiers described the exercise this way: “a test of rapid movement of troops equipment” and saidOn Thursday, troops from NATO countries had already been deployed “practiced rail and road transport as well as forcing water obstacles.”
Though Warsaw long campaigned to have one, the US doesn’t currently possess a permanent base military in Poland. To win over the US President, the Poles proposed that the base be called “Poleta”. “Fort Trump.”
The US currently has around 100,000 troops stationed in Europe. A number of NATO members have also dispatched their soldiers to the alliance’s “eastern flank,”This runs from Estonia to Romania. It was established after Moscow sent troops in February into Ukraine.
According to the confidential proposal that the Washington Post obtained earlier this week, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia requested NATO to maintain around 6,000 troops in each country’s territory and to have a contingent of 20,000 soldiers available for deployment in the event of an attack by Russia. These four countries also desire permanent facilities to house the unit-sized force with ready-to use equipment and supplies.
“Russia can rapidly mass military forces against NATO’s eastern border and confront the Alliance with a short war and fait accompli,”The document said.
Poland is currently serving as NATO’s main logistics base for supplying weapons and other military aid to Ukraine. Warsaw also provided Kiev with over 200 tanks and artillery as well as drones, fighter jets, bombers, and ammunition.
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