U.S. soldiers expected to land in Poland on Saturday -defence sources

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Item 1 of 2 A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130J-30 Hercules transport aircraft is seen after landing on the tarmac of the Jasionka Airport near Rzeszow, Poland February 4, 2022. Patryk Ogorzalek/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS
[1/2]A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-130J-30 Hercules transport aircraft is seen after landing on the tarmac of the Jasionka Airport near Rzeszow, Poland February 4, 2022. Patryk Ogorzalek/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
WARSAW, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The first main U.S. forces are expected to arrive in Poland on Saturday, defence sources told Reuters on Friday, in order to reinforce NATO's eastern flank as the West and Russia wrangle over Russia's military presence near the Ukrainian border.
The sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the troops' arrival, said the plans could change depending on security and logistics.
President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced the deployment of nearly 3,000 American troops to eastern Europe in the coming days amid a standoff with Russia over Ukraine.
Around 1,700 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are meant to come to Poland, Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and the Pentagon said on Wednesday, but only on a temporary basis.
A small group of soldiers from the U.S. Air Force's 435th Air Ground Operations Wing, which is headquartered at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, arrived on Thursday to prepare for the arrival of the troops and military equipment.
More flights with equipment landed on Friday at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in Southern Poland. read more
The U.S. military already has about 4,500 troops in Poland in both a NATO and a bilateral capacity, mostly stationed in the west of the country on a rotational basis.

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Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis

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Joanna reports on airlines and travel in Europe, including tourism trends, sustainability and policy. She was previously based in Warsaw, where she covered politics and general news. She wrote stories on everything from Chinese spies to migrants stranded in forests along the Belarusian border. In 2022, she spent six weeks covering the war in Ukraine, with a focus on the evacuation of children, war reparations and evidence that Russian commanders knew of sexual violence by their troops. Joanna graduated from the Columbia Journalism School in 2014. Before joining Reuters, she worked in Hong Kong for TIME and later in Brussels reporting on EU tech policy for POLITICO Europe.

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