Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said an additional 20,000 US troops are based in Europe as there may be “hard times” ahead. This is stated in his widespread statement 24 February.
“The US has deployed or redeployed more than 20,000 additional personnel to Europe and redeployed the first permanent US forces on NATO’s eastern flank,” Austin said.
He stressed that this was a response to the most urgent threat to European security since the end of World War II. The head of the Pentagon also recalled the US commitment to the obligation to “defend every inch of NATO territory.”
In November 2022, the head of the EU foreign service, Josep Borrell, announced the need to deploy an EU rapid reaction force in 2023. According to him, the number of rapid reaction forces will be up to 5,000 people.
Earlier, in June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance intends to increase the number of its combat groupings on the eastern flank. According to him, it is planned to transform the NATO rapid reaction forces and increase their number to more than 100,000 people. He also said that the alliance plans to create weapons depots on the eastern flank.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this statement, said that NATO is “a fairly aggressive bloc”, therefore the Russian Ministry of Defense is developing emergency plans on the country’s western borders in response to the new strategic concept of the alliance, which also involves an increase in the number of rapid reaction forces.
