After having “waited a very long time,” Polish leaders gave a warm welcome to thousands of U.S. troops Saturday at a time when European countries have expressed concern about increased Russian aggression.
The U.S. sent more than 3,000 troops, along with tanks and other armored vehicles, to Poland following pressure from NATO members to better safegaurd against the threat of Russian encrouchment after the Vladimir Putin’s country took Crimea form Ukraine in 2014.
“We have waited for you for a very long time,” Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz told the troops during a welcoming ceremony in the western town of Zagan, according to the Associated Press. “We waited for decades, sometimes feeling we had been left alone, sometimes almost losing hope, sometimes feeling that we were the only one who protected civilization from aggression that came from the east.”
The deployment is part of a larger operations to diseminate troops to several Baltic States and Eastern European countries within reach of Russia. They are expected to serve 9-months deployment before being replace by fresh troops.
The troops arrived in Germany earlier in the week and began spreading out to destinations from Estonia to Hungary.
The Russians have not taken kindly to the move, viewing it as a threat to Russian “interests” and “security.”
“It’s a third country that is building up its military presence on our borders in Europe,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC. “It isn’t even a European country.”
NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller defended the U.S. troops’ presence in Poland during an interview published Friday by the Baltic News Service, saying it was a “proportionate and measured” move, according to the AP.
