US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will send 1,000 more troops to Poland to counter Russia, while criticizing Germany for making itself a “hostage” to Moscow by over-relying on Russian energy supplies.
Details of the troop boost were thin but they fell far short of Poland’s long-running hope for a permanent major US military base.
About 5,000 US soldiers already deploy along with NATO forces in Poland as part of a rotating pool, rather than a fixed garrison. At a joint press conference with his visiting Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, Trump said an additional 1,000 troops would be sent.
Trump said the US troops would be moved to Poland from fellow NATO-member Germany and that Poland was building facilities to accommodate them.
The number was half the amount Trump had flagged less than three hours earlier while meeting in the Oval Office with Duda, where he said “they’re talking about 2,000 troops.”
Trump poured cold water on his Polish allies’ hopes for a full-blown permanent US facility — something that would irritate the Kremlin and almost certainly prompt a Russian response.
