The US wants to extend the variety of troops it has positioned in Poland to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russia's warfare in opposition to Ukraine, a Polish politician mentioned.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Radek Sikorski, who's a member of the European Parliament and had beforehand served as Poland's international minister and protection minister, mentioned that the U.S. ought to place not less than 30,000 troops in his nation because the navy battle continues in Ukraine.

Sikorski was requested by a BBC host through the interview if he believes "the load has been positioned way more closely on sanctions and so forth than on deterrence within the phrases of the way in which Western international locations have responded to Russia's actions?"

"We have to do each. The sanctions are powerful and unprecedented," Sikorski responded. "However we also needs to rearm and strengthen the Jap flank. Ukrainians have already destroyed extra Russian tanks than both Germany or France or Britain have of their inventories. The West's disarmament has gone too far."

The BBC host then requested: "When President Biden does go to Poland, what would you wish to say to him?"

"That due to Russia's flip, and unjustified assault on Ukraine, we want and the U.S. wants, the sort of presence in Poland that it used to have in Germany through the Chilly Warfare... We predict 30,000 is absolutely the minimal of what must be positioned in Poland to discourage Putin," Sikorski responded.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon instructed Newsweek Thursday morning that the U.S. at present has roughly 10,000 troops in Poland.

"That quantity fluctuates primarily based upon necessities," the spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.

On March 14, Stars and Stripes reported that greater than half of the U.S. troops in Poland had been despatched to that nation within the earlier six weeks main as much as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Needs to Triple Troops in Poland
A former Polish official mentioned Wednesday that the U.S. ought to enhance the variety of troops it has positioned in Poland to 30,000. Above, American troopers put together to depart Fort Campbell in Kentucky for Poland on February 16. Seth Herald

President Joe Biden is at present in Europe on a four-day journey that features a cease in Poland. Biden, who arrived in Brussels on Wednesday, is anticipated to announce the brand new spherical of navy support and sanctions Thursday.

Days earlier than Biden arrived in Europe, Russia issued a warning to Poland in a letter written by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian safety council. The letter got here after Poland's prime minister moved to sever financial ties with Moscow following the Ukraine invasion.

"The pursuits of the residents of Poland have been sacrificed resulting from Russophobia of 'mediocre politicians' and their 'puppeteers from throughout the ocean' with clear indicators of senile madness," Medvedev wrote in a publish on Telegram.

Newsweek additionally reached out to the White Home and Polish Armed Forces for remark however didn't obtain responses in time for publication on Thursday morning.