Moscow is steamed about U.S. troop deployments in Poland

Russia’s Defense Ministry is accusing the United States of “quietly” deploying a second armored brigade in Poland, during last month’s Russian-Belarusian “Zapad-2017” military exercises.

“And so, contrary to all of the announcements by NATO and the U.S. about the ‘insignificance’ of their troops being concentrated at Russia’s borders, now we see that it’s de facto not a brigade but a mechanized division of the U.S. armed forces within two hours of trained personnel who could be redeployed from the nearest American base in Europe,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

The Zapad-2017 training exercises took place from September 14 to September 20, officially involving 13,000 troops. Baltic states reacted with particular alarm, and Lithuania’s president worried openly that Moscow was practicing for an invasion of NATO members.

In late September, Ukrainian officials claimed that most of the Russian troops involved in Zapad-2017 have remained in Belarus. Moscow denies these allegations.