A large contingent of American reinforcements announced to reassure Eastern European allies in the face of Russian-Ukrainian tensions arrived at an airport in southeastern Poland on Sunday.
A US Air Force Boeing C-17 military transport plane landed at 13:00 GMT at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport (southeast), in foggy and gray weather.
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"Other soldiers will arrive in the coming hours
," said Mariusz Blaszczak, Poland's Defense Minister, in a statement broadcast by television as the aircraft touched down.
According to him, the contingent of 1,700 soldiers from the 82nd American Airborne Division will be deployed
“in southeastern Poland, on the eastern flank of NATO”
.
Logistical preparations have started since last week and Major General Christopher Donahue, commander of this 82nd division made up of combat-capable forces, has already arrived in Poland.
This deployment is intended to
"improve the preparation, the interoperability in all the fields with our Polish allies and, if necessary, to defend any part of NATO"
, declared the general during a briefing, just after the landing of its soldiers and equipment.
It is
“a prudent measure to collectively prevent any war objective.
It is defensive in nature and it is clearly a question of ensuring the protection of the whole alliance
,” he insisted.
The United States announced on Wednesday the dispatch of 3,000 additional American soldiers to Eastern Europe to defend the NATO countries
"against any aggression"
, in the midst of a diplomatic ballet aimed at convincing Moscow to withdraw its troops massed at the borders. from Ukraine.
The new American troops are in addition to the 8,500 soldiers placed on alert at the end of January by American President Joe Biden to be deployed in NATO's rapid reaction force if necessary.
Westerners have accused Moscow since the end of 2021 of having massed tens of thousands of soldiers on Ukraine's borders for a potential invasion, which Russia denies, claiming only to guarantee its security.
