WARSAW: Polish President Andrzej Duda has hailed the “historic” presence of US soldiers on his country’s soil, saying it would reinforce Poland’s security within NATO.
The US armored brigade of some 3,500 troops as well as tanks and heavy equipment arrived in Poland this month, one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the Cold War.
“This moment is historic, because it changes the model in our part of Europe,” Duda said at the launch of a joint exercise of Polish and American troops in Zagan, a town near the German border. He was joined by Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the US Army commander in Europe.
The previous US administration of President Barack Obama ordered the deployment to reassure NATO allies in eastern Europe after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The Kremlin has denounced the operation as a “threat” to its security.
Although President Donald Trump has said he wants to ease tensions with Moscow, the deployments remain in place for now.
Three decades ago, the Zagan garrison which is hosting the US troops housed “another army which we had not invited and which we had to treat as allies,” Duda said, referring to former Soviet troops in then-communist Poland.
The so-called “Iron Brigade,” from Fort Carson in Colorado, will also be deployed in rotation in six other NATO members — the three Baltic states as well as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Also Monday, a sudden surge in clashes between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels killed at least seven people despite a tattered truce in Ukraine’s war-scarred east.
The fighting came as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to step up economic sanctions against Moscow.
“Since Sunday, there have been continuing clashes and heavy attacks on our positions,” said Ukraine’s 72nd army brigade spokeswoman Olena Mokrynchuk.
The military in Kiev said three of its soldiers had died on Sunday night.
An AFP reporter in the town of Avdiivka near the de facto rebel capital Donetsk saw Kiev troops capture three rebels on Monday. Two of them later died of their wounds.
Electricity has been off since Sunday and water supplies are sporadic in Avdiivka amid the shelling and gunfire.
The separatists also reported two civilians deaths from Ukrainian fire around Donetsk.
The bloodshed put at risk yet another attempt by exasperated mediators to end one of Europe’s bloodiest conflicts since the 1990s Balkans wars.
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Poland’s leader hails ‘historic’ presence of US troops
Poland’s leader hails ‘historic’ presence of US troops
Russia’s war footing may remain after Ukraine war, Latvia spy chief warns
MUNICH: Russia will not end the militarization of its economy after fighting in Ukraine ends, the head of Latvia’s intelligence agency told AFP on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference which ends Sunday.
“The potential aggressiveness of Russia when the Ukraine war stops will depend of many factors: How the war ends, if it’s frozen or not, and if the sanctions remain,” Egils Zviedris, director of the Latvian intelligence service SAB, told AFP.
Some observers believe that Russia has so thoroughly embraced a war economy and full military mobilization that it will be difficult for it to reverse course, and that this could push Moscow to launch further offensives against European territories.
Zviedris said that lifting current sanctions “would allow Russia to develop its military capacities” more quickly.
He acknowledged that Russia has drawn up military plans to potentially attack Latvia and its Baltic neighbors, but also said that “Russia does not pose a military threat to Latvia at the moment.”
“The fact that Russia has made plans to invade the Baltics, as they have plans for many things, does not mean Russia is going to attack,” Zviedris told AFP.
However, the country is subject to other types of threats from Moscow, particularly cyberattacks, according to the agency he leads.
The SAB recently wrote in its 2025 annual report that Russia poses the main cyber threat to Latvia, because of broader strategic goals as well as Latvia’s staunch support of Ukraine.
The threat has “considerably increased” since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it said.
The agency has also warned that Russia is seeking to exploit alleged grievances of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics — and in Latvia in particular.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly claimed to be preparing cases against Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia at the UN International Court of Justice over the rights of their Russian-speaking minorities.
“The aim of litigation: to discredit Latvia on an international level and ensure long-term international pressure on Latvia to change its policy toward Russia and the Russian-speaking population,” the report said.
In 2025, approximately 23 percent of Latvia’s 1.8 million residents identified as being of Russian ethnicity, according to the national statistics office.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Latvian authorities decided to require Russian speakers residing in the country to take an exam to assess their knowledge of the Latvian language — with those failing at potential risk of deportation.
“The potential aggressiveness of Russia when the Ukraine war stops will depend of many factors: How the war ends, if it’s frozen or not, and if the sanctions remain,” Egils Zviedris, director of the Latvian intelligence service SAB, told AFP.
Some observers believe that Russia has so thoroughly embraced a war economy and full military mobilization that it will be difficult for it to reverse course, and that this could push Moscow to launch further offensives against European territories.
Zviedris said that lifting current sanctions “would allow Russia to develop its military capacities” more quickly.
He acknowledged that Russia has drawn up military plans to potentially attack Latvia and its Baltic neighbors, but also said that “Russia does not pose a military threat to Latvia at the moment.”
“The fact that Russia has made plans to invade the Baltics, as they have plans for many things, does not mean Russia is going to attack,” Zviedris told AFP.
However, the country is subject to other types of threats from Moscow, particularly cyberattacks, according to the agency he leads.
The SAB recently wrote in its 2025 annual report that Russia poses the main cyber threat to Latvia, because of broader strategic goals as well as Latvia’s staunch support of Ukraine.
The threat has “considerably increased” since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it said.
The agency has also warned that Russia is seeking to exploit alleged grievances of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics — and in Latvia in particular.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly claimed to be preparing cases against Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia at the UN International Court of Justice over the rights of their Russian-speaking minorities.
“The aim of litigation: to discredit Latvia on an international level and ensure long-term international pressure on Latvia to change its policy toward Russia and the Russian-speaking population,” the report said.
In 2025, approximately 23 percent of Latvia’s 1.8 million residents identified as being of Russian ethnicity, according to the national statistics office.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Latvian authorities decided to require Russian speakers residing in the country to take an exam to assess their knowledge of the Latvian language — with those failing at potential risk of deportation.
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