NATO has doubled forces in Eastern Europe since 2021

NATO has doubled the number of troops stationed in Eastern Europe from 5,000 to 10,000 since 2021, spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on Monday. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s plan to have 30 times that number on standby has not materialized.

Four new NATO battle groups have been set up in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, with new deployments in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia adding to existing battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, all of which border Russia.

Currently, there are 10,000 troops spread across these eight battle groups, compared to 5,000 in the four groups in 2021, Lungescu told the Washington Post.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wants these 10,000 forward-deployed troops backed up by 300,000 high-readiness troops in reserve. Stoltenberg announced this plan a year ago,…