Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
The US troops stationed in Lithuania near the border have prepared to get into military engagement with Russian forces, according to Lithuania’s top brass.
Lithuanian Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupsys said on Friday that the US forces stationed in the eastern European country along the border with Belarus had switched from deterrence mode into combat mode.
“The main factor used to be deterrence, the demonstration that they were here and could increase our forces at any time,” Rupsys said in an interview with radio LRT. “And now the situation has changed: those units are being deployed so that they can fight immediately. It’s a seamless … transition from one mode to another.”
Rupsys noted that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had given him assurance that American troops would maintain “a persistent presence in Lithuania.” He also pointed out that US troops will be present in the country until 2025, at the least.
US troops in Lithuania have been stationed in the eastern city of Pabrade since 2019.
Since 2014, the US has been intermittently rotating some 4,200 troops in and out of Europe. Separately, some 62,000 US military personnel are assigned permanently on the continent.
NATO forces also maintain a multi-national military unit in Lithuania which is led by Germany.
