The United States extends the deployment of troops in Romania, on the cusp of the Ukraine war

The Pentagon will remain Several thousand American troops are in southeastern Romania At least another nine months, officials said Saturday, is closer to the war in neighboring Ukraine than any other US military unit.

Over the past year, the sprawling Mihail Kogălniceanu air base, which was only a seven-minute missile flight across the Black Sea from where Russian forces are stationed in Crimea, has become a training center for NATO forces in southeastern Europe. The troops would be the first line of defense if Russia invaded the West.

There are about 4,000 American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who have been stationed at the air base since last summer, including small groups of troops who frequently train on Romania’s border with Ukraine. Before that, there was a smaller unit of the 82nd Airborne Division that was sent as part of the Quick Reaction Force after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

The 101st Airborne will leave in the next two months, and officials said they will be replaced by a different brigade from the 101st, based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

In addition, the officials said, the mission will be led by senior personnel, including its two-star general and chief planners, of the 10th Mountain Division, headquartered at Ft. Drumm, New York, for what is expected to be a nine-month publication.

Prior to Saturday, it was not clear whether the Pentagon would keep the high-level unit at the air base in Romania or move its forces elsewhere.

Military analysts said that sending a two-star general close to the combat zone would allow quick decisions on where to deploy troops and weapons if Russia pushed the war into NATO territory.

The military said in a statement on Saturday that the move “will ensure that the United States continues to be well-positioned to provide a strong deterrent and defensive posture alongside our allies across the European continent.” “The United States will continue to adjust its posture as needed in response to the dynamic security environment.”

The buildup was part of President Biden’s commitment in June to increase US forces in Europe in response to the Russian invasion. This also included about 12,000 American soldiers, currently stationed in western Poland, to serve with NATO forces in Poland and the Baltic states.

Supporters of maintaining a strong presence in Eastern Europe pointed to Russia’s offensive as evidence that the United States and its NATO allies did not do enough to deter Moscow last winter.

And US forces in Romania are training soldiers from NATO allies in Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. Although they are among the units closest to combat, they do not train Ukrainian forces on advanced weapons systems that are being shipped to the Ukrainians.

Romanian military officials have welcomed the U.S. force as a large enough force to ensure what Lt. Gen. Julian Berdella, the country’s head of land forces, described last month as “both predictable deterrence and defence.”

The Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, near the Romanian port city of Constanta, served as a sleeper training site for NATO forces, including several hundred American soldiers, and was more widely known in the military as a way station with a small dining hall for the United States. Troops flying to and from Afghanistan.