More U.S. troops landed in Poland on Sunday afternoon as part of the reinforcement of NATO military positions in Europe announced by Washington earlier this week.
News channel TVN24 showed footage of the latest arrivals at the Rzeszów–Jasionka airport in south-eastern Poland. The first additional US soldiers arrived at the airport on Saturday.
Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak welcomed the arrival of the allies, saying that deterrence and solidarity were the best response to the aggressive policy being pursued by Moscow over Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden announced the increase of US troops in Europe to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank as a response to the build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border.
A total of 1,700 troops will be redeployed from the US to Poland, while a further 300 troops are to be sent to Germany. In turn, some 1,000 US troops currently stationed in Germany will be redeployed to Romania, which shares a border with Ukraine.
Czech President Milos Zeman meanwhile sounded a rather different note, when he spoke out against sending Czech troops to reinforce NATO positions during a television discussion on Sunday.
Zeman, who as president is also technically commander-in-chief of the Czech armed forces, said that sending Czech troops would constitute unnecessary “sabre rattling.”
Arguing that the tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine were currently only a “war of words” fuelled by both sides, Zeman said that the conflict should be limited to that.
Earlier, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky argued that the deployment of additional NATO troops to areas bordering Ukraine also served Czech security.
Zeman criticised what he described as false reports which played up the danger of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying he did not fear such an attack.
“The Russians are not madmen,” Zeman said, adding that Moscow knew very well that it had far more to lose than it stood to gain from an invasion of Ukraine. (dpa/NAN)