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Russia says it views the arrival of more than 3,000 US soldiers in Poland as a threat to its own security.

The troops are part of President Barack Obama's response to reassure Nato allies concerned about a more aggressive Russia.

It is the largest US military reinforcement of Europe in decades.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC that the move "threatens our interests and our security".

"It's a third country that is building up its military presence on our borders in Europe," he said. "It isn't even a European country."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Mechkov called the deployment a "factor destabilising European security".

Poland's Undersecretary of State for Defence Tomasz Szatkowski said the deployment was necessary because of Russia's "large exercises" next to its border and its "aggressive actions in our vicinity - I mean Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea".

Trump factor

More than 80 main battle tanks and hundreds of armoured vehicles have already arrived in Germany and are now being moved into eastern Europe by road and rail.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The plan is to rotate the forces every nine months

Part of the US force entered at Poland's Olszyna border crossing with Germany on Thursday.

The plan is to rotate the forces every nine months. Other nations involved in the rotation are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

The US Armoured Brigade will also carry out military exercises in the Baltics, all part of President Obama's response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine and to reassure nervous Nato allies.

Last October, Russia sent nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, followed a month later by Bastion anti-ship missile launchers.

The arrival of the US forces in eastern Europe comes just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who has signalled he wants to improve relations with Moscow.

The election of Mr Trump has raised questions as to whether this heightened US military posture will continue, BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale reports from Poland.

Mr Trump's nomination for defence secretary - Gen James Mattis - is likely to be asked about the new administration's attitude to Russia in his Senate confirmation hearing later on Thursday.</s>The arrival of thousands of US soldiers in Poland as part of a NATO build-up is a threat to Russia's national security, the Kremlin has said.

The mission, one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the Cold War, will eventually see more than 3,000 troops and heavy equipment deployed in Poland and other nearby NATO partners on a rotational basis.

"This operation threatens our interests and our security," Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday.



"This is even more pronounced when a third party [US] reinforces its military presence on our doorstep in Europe."

READ MORE: US tanks arrive in Germany for NATO mission in Europe

The Atlantic Resolve mission, agreed on at a NATO 2016 summit, was ordered by outgoing President Barack Obama's administration to calm US allies in Europe after Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine.

Russian actions alarmed the Baltic states, which worry they could be the next targets of Russian pressure and intervention as Moscow has increased its presence in the Baltic Sea area over the past two years.

The operation comes a week before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, who has announced that his Republican administration will work to ease tensions with the Kremlin amid concern over accusations of Russian intervention in the 2016 US elections.

Alexei Mechkov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, described the deployment as a "factor destabilising European security".

The first of the arriving troops, reportedly from Fort Carson, Colorado, will be followed with more than 3,000 soldiers, tanks and other military equipment deployed in Poland via Germany and nearby NATO partners.

Among their equipment will be 87 Abrams M1A1 tanks, 20 Paladin artillery vehicles and 136 Bradley fighting vehicles.

The forces will branch out to seven Eastern European countries from Estonia to Bulgaria on a rotational basis within the next two weeks.

In addition to US troops, NATO members Germany, Canada and Britain are also sending up to 1,000 troops, each to the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The arrival of the troops will be announced in official ceremonies on Saturday.</s>A senior NATO official on Friday called Washington's deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and other eastern allies a "proportionate and measured" response to Russian military activity near the region.

"Through the so-called Atlantic Resolve operation there is U.S. armor coming back to Europe and it is a response to what Russia has been doing," NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller told the Baltic news agency BNS.

U.S. troops and tanks began streaming into Poland Thursday as part of one of the largest deployments of U.S. forces in Europe since the Cold War, an operation that Russia angrily branded a security "threat."

"I do want to emphasize that it is proportionate and measured," Gottemoeller said of the deployment of some "3,500 personnel, 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles."

"This is an important step, but it is meant for deterrence and defense," she added.

The Atlantic Resolve mission will see US soldiers and heavy equipment also deployed in NATO partners Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary on a rotational basis.

Tensions between Russia and the West have escalated over the past two years, triggered by Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its military campaign in Syria since late 2015.

Also last year, Moscow's deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad outpost and frequent military drills in the Baltic region rattled neighboring NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

Gottemoeller said she saw "legitimate possibilities for future dialogue" between NATO and Russia, but insisted the Western alliance needed to be very "clear-eyed" about reducing risks on its eastern flank.

"We want to reduce risks so that we do not have a possibility of a crisis emerging that could possibly escalate into conflict," the NATO official told BNS speaking on the sidelines of an informal security policy summit in Lithuania.

Last summer, NATO leaders endorsed plans to rotate troops into Poland and the three Baltic states to reassure them they would not be left in the lurch if Russia was tempted to repeat its Ukraine intervention.

The former top U.S. general in Europe told AFP on Friday that dialogue with Russia was "inevitable" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, but recommended taking small steps.

"What we need to do is begin a series of dialogues and address small incremental things that we see as mutually beneficial," said retired general Philip Breedlove, who was also attending the security conference in the resort town of Trakai on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

"If we have success... then we move on to something a little more challenging," Breedlove said.</s>(Fox News) Thousands of U.S. troops crept up on Russia’s doorstep Thursday, rolling into Poland amid a slew of unanswered questions about their future in the region.

It marked the first deployment of armored brigade combat teams and armor to Europe after a long drawdown from the continent. For decades, Poland had asked for help in keeping Moscow at bay, but at the same time, President-elect Donald Trump has signaled he could try to pursue a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Still, the president-elect said Wednesday nothing was off the table. “I don’t know that I’m going to get along with Vladimir Putin. I hope I do. But there’s a good chance I won’t.”

Russia clearly wasn’t happy with the deployment. “We perceive it as a threat,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “These actions threaten our interests, our security, especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders.”

Moscow also announced it deployed anti-aircraft missile systems around the city. Russia had already been using the s-400 Triumph air defense system, capable of hitting moving targets including missiles and planes, in Syria, The Sun reported.

Soldiers in camouflage with tanks and other vehicles crossed into southwestern Poland on Thursday morning from Germany and headed for Zagan, their planned base. Poland’s prime minister and defense minister said they would attend official ceremonies Saturday celebrating the Americans’ arrival.

The deployment “symbolizes a turn in our efforts on this front, and is an important part of our continued effort to deter Russian aggression and maintain a free Europe,” U.S. European Command spokeswoman Meghan Henderson responded.

U.S. and other Western nations have carried out exercises on NATO’s eastern flank, but this deployment — which includes around 3,500 U.S. troops — marks the first-ever continuous deployment to the region by a NATO ally. It represents a commitment by President Barack Obama to protect a region that became deeply nervous when Russia stormed Ukraine and took over Crimea in 2014, and then began backing rebels in Ukraine’s east.

The deployment was “separate yet complementary to NATO’s deterrence and defense activities,” Henderson added.

Many people in Poland said they still felt betrayed by Obama’s own “reset” with Russia early on in his administration, which involved abandoning plans for a major U.S. missile defense system in Poland and replacing it with plans for a less ambitious system.

Many U.S. soldiers said they were optimistic. “Hopefully we can get right into training, get some range time in and have some fun,” Spc. Kyle Smith, an infantryman with the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, told Stars and Stripes.</s>Some 3,000 U.S. troops, under a NATO banner, are arriving in Poland and six other Eastern European countries in what a Kremlin spokesman calls a threat to Russia’s interest and security.

The deployment, which includes more than 80 main battle tanks and hundreds of armored vehicles, is part of NATO’s Operation Atlantic Resolve, which was launched in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The operation, representing the largest U.S. military reinforcement of Europe in decades, calls for a unit rotation every nine months.

The armored brigade combat team, based in Colorado, arrived in Germany last week. The group is gathering at a NATO and Polish base in Wrocław, in southwest Poland, before fanning out to six other NATO countries in the Russian neighborhood, including the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that any country would regard a buildup of foreign military presence near its borders negatively.

“This is precisely the way we see it,” he said, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. “We interpret this as a threat to us and as actions that endanger our interests and our security.”

U.S. concern over possible Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, as well as the Baltics, was underscored by a visit last week to the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — now NATO allies — by three U.S. senators, including John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The three also visited a former military post in Ukraine.

The reinforcements in Poland, a former member of the Warsaw Pact, come less than two weeks before the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has indicated he will likely pursue warmer relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said this week that Poland did not want to block closer U.S. ties with Russia “provided that this does not happen at our expense,” Radio Poland reported.

Russia, in its own saber-rattling gesture, recently deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, the sliver of Russian territory between Poland and Lithuania.</s>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — American soldiers rolled into Poland on Thursday, fulfilling a dream some Poles have had since the fall of communism in 1989 to have U.S. troops on their soil as a deterrent against Russia.

Some people waved and held up American flags as U.S. troops in tanks and other vehicles crossed into southwestern Poland from Germany and headed toward the town of Zagan, where they will be based. Poland’s prime minister and defense minister will welcome them in an official ceremony Saturday.

“This is the fulfilment of a dream,” said Michal Baranowski, director of the German Marshall Fund think tank in Warsaw. “And this is not just a symbolic presence but one with a real capability.”

U.S. and other Western nations have carried out exercises on NATO’s eastern flank in past years, but the new deployment — which includes some 3,500 U.S. troops — marks the first-ever continuous deployment to the region by a NATO ally.

It is part of a larger commitment by President Barack Obama to protect a region that grew deeply nervous when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and then began backing separatist rebels in Ukraine’s east.

There are fears, however, that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump.

Poland and the Baltic states also feel threatened by Russia’s recent deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, the Russian territory wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

But Russia says it’s the one who is threatened.

“These actions threaten our interests, our security,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. “Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders. It’s not even a European state.”

Worries about the permanence of the new U.S. security commitments are rooted in a tragic national history in which Poland has often lost out in deals made by the great powers.

Poles still feel betrayed by Obama’s “reset” with Russia early on in his administration, which involved abandoning plans for a major U.S. missile defense system in Poland and replacing it with plans for a less ambitious system, still not in place.

“All recent U.S. presidents have thought there can be a grand bargain with Russia,” said Marcin Zaborowski, a senior associate at Visegrad Insight, an analytic journal on Central Europe. “Trump has a proclivity to make deals, and Central and Eastern Europe have reason to worry about that.”

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed hope this week that any new effort at reconciliation with Russia “does not happen at our expense.”

The armored brigade combat team arriving in Poland hails from Fort Carson, Colorado. The troops arrived last week in Germany and are gathering in Poland before units will fan out across seven countries from Estonia to Bulgaria. A headquarters unit will be stationed in Germany. After nine months they will be replaced by another unit.

In a separate but related mission, NATO will also deploy four battalions to its eastern flank later this year, one each to Poland and the three Baltic states. The U.S. will also lead one of those battalions.

Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

 Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.</s>OLSZYNA, Poland - US troops and tanks began arriving in Poland Thursday, part of one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the Cold War that will eventually involve more than 3,000 soldiers.

The Pentagon operation sparked immediate anger from Russia, with the Kremlin describing it as a “threat” on its “doorstep.”

The Atlantic Resolve mission will see an armoured brigade with more than 3,000 Amercian soldiers and heavy equipment deployed in Poland and nearby NATO partners Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary on a rotational basis.

The outgoing Obama administration ordered the deployment in 2014 to reassure eastern allies after Russia’s actions in Ukraine. But the operation comes a week ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested his Republican administration will seek to ease tensions with the Kremlin.

A contingent of US troops entered Poland at the Olszyna border crossing with Germany on Thursday.

Heavy equipment, including 87 Abrams tanks and over 500 personnel carriers including military-equipped Humvees were to follow.

“This operation threatens our interests and our security,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. “This is even more pronounced when a third party (the United States) reinforces its military presence on our doorstep in Europe,” he added.

Russian deputy foreign minister Alexei Mechkov described the deployment as a “factor destabilising European security.”

Last summer, NATO leaders also endorsed plans to rotate troops into Poland and the three Baltic states to reassure them they would not be left in the lurch if Russia was tempted to repeat its 2014 Ukraine intervention.

A separate US-led battalion working within the NATO framework will be stationed near Poland’s north-east border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

Moscow has stepped up its presence in the Baltic Sea area over the last two years. Its jets regularly violate the airspace of smaller ex-Soviet NATO allies like Estonia and in April they even buzzed a US naval destroyer.

Late last year, Poland criticised Moscow’s deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles into its Kaliningrad outpost that borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania.</s>Warsaw will officially welcome the arrival of 3,500 US troops to Poland as part of a Nato military build-up on the bloc’s eastern wall, a move attacked as a provocation by Moscow.

On Saturday, Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo and defence minister Antoni Macierewicz will meet the troops, part of Nato’s Operation Atlantic Resolve, at their new base in the western Polish town of Zagan.

Nato leaders said the deployments, agreed at recent summits, are a response to the Russian stand-off with Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea. Russia has protested that the largest such deployment in peacetime breaches agreements Nato made with Russia following the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.

Last week some 2,500 items of military equipment arrived in Germany and have since been moved in transports across the continent. These include tanks, artillery vehicles and military helicopters. Some 1,000 will be stationed in Poland.

At its Warsaw summit last year, Nato members agreed to deploy to its eastern flank four rotating multinational battalions of some 1,000 soldiers each. Germany, Canada and Britain are sending battalions to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The US will deploy to the region an additional armoured brigade that is usually based in Fort Carson, Colorado.

The arrival of Nato troops in Zagan, 120km from the western border with Germany, was decried as an aggressive step in Moscow, 1,800km away.

“We perceive it as a threat,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. “These actions threaten our interests, our security. Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders.”

Poland shares no direct border with Russia, though the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad – formerly Königsberg – is located between Poland and Lithuania.

Nervousness in Poland and the Baltic countries about Russia’s intentions in its former sphere of influence has prompted years of lobbying from Nato’s newer members for greater military support in the region.

But their long-sought show of support, moved forward into the last days of the Obama administration, comes with a caveat: Will president-elect Donald Trump will maintain the commitment?

In his election campaign, Mr Trump questioned US Nato commitments in Europe, in particular towards members who fail to meet the alliance’s minimum defence spending requirements of 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

In 2015, Poland boosted its spending by almost a fifth to reach the 2 per cent commitment. Estonia also meets the Nato spending commitment, according to World Bank figures, while Lithuania and Latvia spend 1.1 per cent of GDP.

Brig Gen Timothy McGuire, head of US forces in Europe, said the deployment was a show of Nato “strength and cohesion” in Russia’s direction. “The best way to maintain the peace is through preparation,” he said last week.</s>Around 3,500 US troops have arrived in Poland, one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the end of the Cold War in 1991, sparking immediate anger from Russia.

The contingent of US troops, which arrived in Poland from Germany on Thursday along with hundreds of military vehicles, is part of a larger NATO operation to 'deter Russian aggression.'

The American troops will spend about a month training in Poland before moving to other NATO member states in Eastern Europe for additional training exercises.

The Pentagon operation, dubbed Atlantic Resolve mission, will involve an armored brigade and heavy equipment deployed in Poland and nearby NATO partners Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania on a rotational basis.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama ordered the deployment in 2014 to reassure NATO allies in Eastern Europe after Russia’s alleged intervention in Ukraine's crisis.

But the mission comes a week ahead of the inauguration of incoming US President Donald Trump, who has suggested his future administration will seek to resolve tensions with Moscow.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the NATO operation threatens Russia’s “interests and our security.”

“This is even more pronounced when a third party (the United States) reinforces its military presence on our doorstep in Europe,” he added.

Alexei Meshkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said the deployment is a “factor destabilizing European security.”

The US and its allies have been at odds with Moscow since Ukraine's strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea joined Russia following a referendum in March 2014.

Since then, the European Union, the US and some other Western countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia.

NATO also cut ties with Moscow in 2014 and started to deploy troops and weaponry to Baltic States—Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia—near Russia. – Press TV.</s>A top NATO official says the deployment of US troops in Poland at Russia's doorstep is a "proportionate and measured" move.

In an interview published Friday by the Baltic News Service, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller acknowledged that Russians "are concerned about what NATO is doing."

American soldiers rolled into Poland Thursday in the first deployment of U.S. troops since the fall of communism in 1989 as a deterrent against Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The Baltic Sea region also feels threatened by Russia's recent nearby deployment of nuclear-capable missiles.

Gottemoeller says the alliance has "some interest in dialogue" with the Russians.

Gottemoeller was in Lithuania for a two-day informal security policy meeting.
3,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Poland as part of NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve. Poland says that the deployment is a necessary response to Russian military exercises near its border and its intervention in Ukraine while Russia condemns the move as a "threat to national interests and security".