Ukrainian crisis: U.S. works with Poland to deploy heavy weaponry

Poland’s defense minister said Thursday the United States would deploy heavy weapons to the EU state next year, as regional tensions run high over Russia and the conflict in Ukraine. Washington had said in June it would store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and eastern European countries. Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said two locations for the weaponry had been identified in the west and northeast of the country following talks with the United States but would not specify the exact locations. A U.S. official said that the Pentagon was poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons in the region, enough for as many as 5,000 troops. Siemoniak added that the terms would be finalized during a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels in early October.

We expect this deployment to take place in mid-2016.

Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak

The deployment of weaponry will represent the first time since the Cold War that the United States has stationed such equipment in NATO members that were once under Soviet sway. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the U.S. plan by announcing in June that Moscow would in turn expand its nuclear arsenal and accused NATO of “coming to our borders”. Poland and other countries in eastern Europe have been rattled by Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting Kiev’s forces since April 2014.

Europe