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