The dichotomy of Military Policy of United States is evident.
It recently asked 160 troops to move out of Ukraine, but landed fresh troops in
Poland. The troops reinforcing NATO allies in Eastern Europe arrived at a
military base in southeastern Poland on Saturday.
The US troops arrived in a small Beechcraft C-12 Huron that
landed at Rzeszow military base on February 05, Polish military spokesman Major Przemyslaw
Lipczynski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Lipczynski said the arrivals included some support and command-level
staff, adding that a much larger contingent is expected to arrive at the
airfield on Sunday. The second transport was initially slated for arrival on
Saturday afternoon, but those plans were changed for undisclosed reasons,
Lipczynski added.
“We await the arrival of our allies,” Lipczynski told PAP,
adding that “our collaboration has been going very smoothly.”
In total, some 1,700 US soldiers from the 82nd Airborne
Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are expected to be stationed in Poland,
the spokesman said, describing it as an elite rapid response force that Polish
troops have worked with on multiple occasions.
“We served alongside them on missions, including Iraq and
Afghanistan,” Lipczynski said, adding that the soldiers had also trained
together during international war games like Dragon and Anaconda.
“We can count on each other, and trust one another,” he
added.
The US troop contingent arrived on the same day that the
Russian Defense Ministry announced it had sent a pair of long-range
nuclear-capable bombers on patrol over Moscow ally Belarus, which shares a
border with Poland.
“In the course of their flight, the long-range aircraft
practiced joint tasks with the air force and air defense of the Belarusian
armed forces,” according to Russian state news agency TASS. The patrol
mission lasted around four hours, after which the Russian planes returned to
base in Russia.
The patrol mission came as the Kremlin has moved troops from
Siberia and other remote parts of Russia to Belarus for sweeping joint drills,
with the deployment adding to a large Russian military buildup near Ukraine
that has fueled Western fears of a possible invasion.
Russia has denied any plans of attacking Ukraine and has
asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they won’t
accept Ukraine into NATO.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for his
country’s admission into the military alliance.
The Kremlin has also asked the United States and its allies
to promise not to deploy offensive weapons and to roll back NATO deployments to
Eastern Europe.
Washington and NATO have rejected those demands.
“From our perspective it can’t be clearer—NATO’s door is
open, remains open, and that is our commitment,” Secretary of State Antony
Blinken said in late January, though he renewed an offer of “reciprocal”
measures to address mutual security concerns between Russia and NATO, including
missile reductions in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled Moscow’s
readiness for more talks with Washington and its NATO allies.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz were scheduled to make separate trip to Kyiv and Moscow as part of a
high-level diplomatic effort to defuse tensions.
===============
First US Troops Arrive in Poland to Reinforce NATO Amid
Russia–Ukraine Tensions
By Tom Ozimek
February 5, 2022 Updated: February 6, 2022
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The first U.S. troops reinforcing NATO allies in Eastern
Europe amid Russia–Ukraine tensions arrived at a military base in
southeastern Poland on Saturday.
A handful of U.S. troops arrived in a small Beechcraft C-12
Huron that landed at Rzeszow military base shortly after 10 a.m. on Feb. 5,
Polish military spokesman Major Przemyslaw Lipczynski told the Polish Press
Agency (PAP).
Lipczynski said the arrivals included some support and command-level
staff, adding that a much larger contingent is expected to arrive at the
airfield on Sunday. The second transport was initially slated for arrival on
Saturday afternoon, but those plans were changed for undisclosed reasons,
Lipczynski added.
“We await the arrival of our allies,” Lipczynski told PAP,
adding that “our collaboration has been going very smoothly.”
In total, some 1,700 U.S. soldiers from the 82nd Airborne
Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are expected to be stationed in Poland,
the spokesman said, describing it as an elite rapid response force that Polish
troops have worked with on multiple occasions.
“We served alongside them on missions, including Iraq and
Afghanistan,” Lipczynski said, adding that the soldiers had also trained
together during international war games like Dragon and Anaconda.
“We can count on each other, and trust one another,” he
added.
The U.S. troop contingent arrived on the same day that the
Russian Defense Ministry announced it had sent a pair of long-range
nuclear-capable bombers on patrol over Moscow ally Belarus, which shares a
border with Poland.
“In the course of their flight, the long-range aircraft
practiced joint tasks with the air force and air defense of the Belarusian
armed forces,” the ministry said, according to Russian
state news agency TASS. The patrol mission lasted around four hours, after
which the Russian planes returned to base in Russia.
The patrol mission came as the Kremlin has moved troops from
Siberia and other remote parts of Russia to Belarus for sweeping joint drills,
with the deployment adding to a large Russian military buildup near Ukraine
that has fueled Western fears of a possible invasion.
Russia has denied any plans of attacking Ukraine and has
asked the United States and its allies for a binding commitment that they won’t
accept Ukraine into NATO.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed for his
country’s admission into the military alliance.
The Kremlin has also asked the United States and its allies
to promise not to deploy offensive weapons and to roll back NATO deployments to
Eastern Europe.
Washington and NATO have rejected those demands.
“From our perspective. I can’t be more clear—NATO’s door is
open, remains open, and that is our commitment,” Secretary of State Antony
Blinken said in late January, though he renewed an offer of “reciprocal”
measures to address mutual security concerns between Russia and NATO, including
missile reductions in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled Moscow’s
readiness for more talks with Washington and its NATO allies.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz are set to make separate trips on Feb. 7–8 and Feb. 14–15 to Kyiv and
Moscow as part of a high-level diplomatic effort to defuse tensions.