News of the move was revealed by Poland’s polskatimes.pl website, which cited two separate off-the-record sources in the Polish government.
To date, US soldiers have been stationed in Poland on a rotating basis, polskatimes.pl noted.
Permanent US deployment to Poland to be announced at NATO summit in June
The decision to make their presence permanent will be announced at NATO's upcoming summit in Madrid on June 29-30, the website reported, quoting a government official with knowledge of the matter.
The report follows repeated calls by Poland’s top officials, including Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, for a permanent US troop presence in the country following Russia’s assault on neighbouring Ukraine, polskatimes.pl reported.
Washington has not yet decided on the exact size of the permanent deployment, but Poland has been pushing for a 10,500-strong US force, according to polskatimes.pl.
US military equipment already being moved to Poland
Meanwhile, “US military hardware is already being shipped to Poland, which is highly significant,” another Polish government official told the website under the condition of anonymity.
“It’s important that as much US equipment and supplies, including ammunition, as possible is deployed to Poland … it takes much longer than moving soldiers,” the source said, as cited by polskatimes.pl.
The US Army is building a USD 360 million storage facility at Powidz in Poland's west, news outlets have reported.
Friday is day 93 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: polskatimes.pl, defence24.pl