US Abruptly Cancels Deployment of 4,000 Troops to Poland

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has abruptly canceled the deployment of more than 4,000 troops to Poland, three U.S. Army officials said Thursday, part of a realignment of American forces in Europe announced this month that has caught many military officials off guard.

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon said it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany and would redeploy them to the United States and other posts overseas. It also canceled a plan developed under the Biden administration to place a missile-equipped artillery unit in Europe.

Those decisions came after President Donald Trump angrily responded to remarks by Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, that Iran had “humiliated” the United States. Merz questioned how Trump planned to end that conflict.

It was unclear why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled the deployment to Poland, which has close relations with the United States and had been considered a possible location for some of the forces leaving Germany. There are now about 7,400 U.S. troops in Poland, and the Army’s V Corps has its forward headquarters in Poznan, Poland.

It was also not immediately clear whether the 4,000 troops assigned to the canceled mission in Poland would count against the drawdown in Germany or be in addition to that.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Hegseth’s decision.

Trump has told reporters that troop cuts in Europe would go even deeper. He has insisted that “we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000” service members from Germany and threatened to also pull troops out of Italy and Spain, countries the president says have not supported the administration’s goals in the U.S. war against Iran.

Pentagon officials have said that the administration’s long-term aim is for European allies to shoulder more of the responsibility for defending the Continent and lessen the U.S. military role there.

The Pentagon’s pullbacks from Germany were sharply criticized by Democrats as well as some senior Republicans in Congress, who cited the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Poland’s defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, said in a social media post late Wednesday the issue “does not concern Poland — it relates to the previously announced change in the presence of some U.S. Armed Forces in Europe.”

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Eric Schmitt
c. 2026 The New York Times Company

The post US Abruptly Cancels Deployment of 4,000 Troops to Poland appeared first on GV Wire.