U.S. troops and military vehicles were crossing Romania Thursday in an open-ended deployment to reassure allies worried about Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine.
The contingent crossed the border at Nadlac from Hungary shortly after 10 pm (2000 GMT) local time on Wednesday.
They are currently headed to the Mihail Kogalniceau base on the Black Sea in eastern Romania.
Their 800-kilometer (550-mile) route went from Arad-Deva-Ramnicu Valcea-Pitesti-Bucharest and then Mihail Kogalniceanu on the Black Sea.
Romanian military police are accompanying the convoy.
Strykers and soldiers from the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment and combat support vehicles lined up Wednesday at the Army airfield in Vilseck, Germany at the start of their mission.
Some 1,000 American troops in all are preparing to head to Romania.
The Vilseck-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment soldiers will remain in Romania to beef up NATO’s eastern flank as long as the mission requires, Col. Joe Ewers, the regiment’s commander told Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military newspaper.
The first 100 U.S. troops arrived in Romania on Tuesday.
Defense Minster Vasile Dincu said: “The Americans have arrived,” using a phrase that has historical connotations in Romania.
Russia is not happy about the arrival of American troops.
Moscow’s Ambassador to Romania Valery Kuzmin warned NATO it was „playing with fire” by deploying additional troops in Romania and the region.
He accused the U.S. of ratcheting up tensions by sending troops to NATO-member Romania, even though militarily they are „more or less negligible,” he said in a three-hour press conference Wednesday.
„It is playing with fire.. It is putting oil into the fire,” adding he hoped it could be put out with efforts from both sides. „It is still a rather small fire; I hope we can extinguish it.”
U.S. troops arrive in Romania amid Ukraine tensions. ‘The Americans have arrived’-defense minister
