Poland denies Russia’s accusations of 2nd US tank brigade being deployed in the country
Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz denied the Russian Defense Ministry’s accusations that a US tank brigade had been deployed in Poland on the quiet, Polish news agency Rzeczpospolita reports.
“It is simply an untrue and misleading representation of the situation,” Macierewicz said at a press-conference in the Polish Cultural Center in London. He also said that the Russian Defense Ministry’s position is “not serious”.
Macierewicz said that he thought “the Russian Defense Ministry was more capable of counting the soldiers deployed on NATO’s eastern flank”. “And if you look at the Russian soldiers, deployed on NATO’s eastern flank, there are far more than a few divisions of them,” the minister stressed. According to him, the Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2017 military exercises involved more than 120,000 soldiers. The Russian Defense Ministry stated officially that the drills involved 12,500 people, about 70 planes and helicopters, as well as 250 tanks and other items of equipment.
Macierewicz clarified that several American battalions are stationed in Poland. According to the Polish minister’s claims, Russia’s aggression “is only increasing”. “In order to justify the aggression, she [Russia] is making false and untruthful statements about our actions, which are completely defensive.”
Through its actions, the minister added, Russia is simply making it necessary for Poland to deploy an American division in the country in future, “and perhaps even two”.
Earlier, official Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the 2nd US Armored Brigade had arrived in the Polish cities of Bolesławiec, Drawsko Pomorskie, Toruń, Skwierzyna and Żagań on the quiet. The equipment of the 3rd US Armored Brigade – 87 M1A1 Abrams tanks, heavy self-propelled M109 Paladin howitzers, 144 Bradley armored infantry carriers and hundreds of other machines – has not left Poland. Konashenkov also claims that the personnel from the nearby US base in Ramstein can be deployed in Poland within two hours.