The United Kingdom has announced to station up to 1.000 military personnel in Poland. These troops are to arrive in 2017 and will be stationed on a permanent basis. This news was mentioned by the British defence minister on Wednesday and confirmation came by the Polish defence minister Antoni Macierewicz on Thursday 21 Jan.
The decision to station troops on a permanent basis in Eastern Europe is highly unseen. Even during Operation Atlantic Resolve, the deployment of US Army brigades to the Baltic States and Eastern Europe, there was no mentioning of a permanent stationing. Us troops would arrive for training and deterrence but were regularly rotated out. The United Kingdom will therefore be the first country of Western Europe to station troops permanent in Eastern Europe.
Aside from troops on the ground there will also be a naval participation with a British ship stationed in the Baltic Sea to support the Polish Fleet. It is at this time unknown what ship will be send but unconfirmed rumours are talking about sending a frigate towards the Baltic Sea.
Analysis
The United Kingdom has developed an anti-Russian stance ever since the annexation of Crimea in February 2014. The country has been seeking closer ties with the new NATO members in Eastern Europe in light of its anti-Russia policy. Even though the United Kingdom enjoys good relations with the new NATO members it remains strange for Britain to decide stationing troops in Poland just based on a close military cooperation.
A deeper reason for the decision Britain made must been seen in light of the investigation concerning the death of the Russian dissident Aleksandr Litvinenko. The investigation ruled that Aleksandr Litvinenko was murdered with radioactive Polonium and that the murder was ordered by the FSB, possibly even Putin.
It seems clear that Putin will stop at nothing to obtain its goals, be their either political, economic or military. The United Kingdom feels that a strong signal must be sent in order to restrain the Russian President from any further aggressive actions. Immediately after the investigation was presented the British parliament already announced new sanctions against Russia.
The decision to station 1.000 troops in Poland must be seen as a further strengthening of British resolve to deter Putin for any hostile actions against Eastern Europe. At the same time this precedent might be used by other NATO countries to send their own troops to the East to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank.
