Russia spoils the Crimea and the USA reassures Poland

23/04/14

The United States will send 600 soldiers to Poland and the Baltic States for an exercise (already planned) and to reassure (mainly) the allies (years ago defined satellite countries of the USSR) by the aggressive attitude of Russia assumed following the crisis in Crimea.

This is what was announced by the US Department of Defense.

Four companies from the 173 ° Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Vicenza, will reach Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. About 150 paratroopers will arrive tomorrow in Poland while the other 600 soldiers will be operating in the Baltic countries from next Monday, 28 April.

The message - they say from the Department of Defense - is addressed to the peoples of the Baltic States. The United States takes the treaties signed within NATO seriously. The US refers to Article 5 of the founding Treaty of NATO which states: "any attack against a member state is to be interpreted as an act of aggression against the entire alliance ". Since the annexation of Crimea, Moscow has amassed around 40 thousand soldiers and thousands of armored vehicles along the eastern border with Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin himself did not rule out the use of military force to protect ethnic Russians in other countries.

Poland, however, seems to have reacted tepidly to the "deployment" of US forces, reiterating the need for a more robust presence of American and NATO forces in the country with a contingent of at least ten thousand soldiers. From the crisis in Crimea, the United States has deployed at the Lask base, 100 miles from Warsaw, Poland, 18 fighter: six F-15Cs from the Lakenheath base in England and twelve F-16s taken off from the US base in Aviano, Italy. Supplies are provided by an airlift formed by C-130 and C-17. For the logistic apparatus the USA has provided other 150 men. Finally, NATO continues to maintain two Awacs in the Region. In the coming days, other NATO-mandated fighters could start to perform aerial patrols on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Franco Iacch

(photo: 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team exercise archive)