US military withdrawing some troops from Eastern Europe

By Natasha Bertrand, CNN

(CNN) — The US is withdrawing some troops from Romania, on NATO’s eastern flank, as the Pentagon works to shift its focus away from Europe and toward homeland defense and Latin America, US and European officials said on Wednesday.

The US is sending home the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division back to Kentucky and will not be replacing the unit after its scheduled rotation out of Eastern Europe, according to US Army Europe and Africa. The redeployment comes as eastern flank NATO countries have faced a spike in threats from Russia in recent weeks, including multiple drone incursions in Polish airspace and repeated violations of Lithuanian airspace.

The Army said the reduction in troops is part of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “deliberate process to ensure a balanced U.S.
military force posture.”

“This is not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5,” the Army press release said. “Rather this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility. Our NATO allies are meeting President Trump’s call to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe. This force posture adjustment will not change the security environment in Europe.”

Romania’s Ministry of Defense said in a separate statement that it had “been informed about the withdrawal of some of the American troops deployed on NATO’s Eastern Flank, as part of the process of reassessing the global posture of US military forces.” The ministry added that “approximately one thousand American soldiers will remain deployed on our national territory.”

“The downsizing of the U.S. forces is an effect of the new priorities of the presidential administration,” the Romanian defense statement said.

The US troops will be pulled from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on the Black Sea, just across from Crimea which remains under de facto Russian control.

The withdrawal of some troops sparked rare GOP backlash to Pentagon decision making, with Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Republican Rep.
Mike Rogers saying in a joint statement that the move “sends the wrong signal to Russia at the very moment President Trump is applying pressure to force Vladimir Putin to come to the table to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services committee, said they “strongly oppose,” the decision and called it “concerning that Congress was not consulted in advance of this decision.”

“We are seeking clarification from the Pentagon on how it plans to mitigate the impact of this decision on NATO’s deterrence and defense posture and whether they coordinated with Allies to minimize these consequences,” they added.

The US still has more troops deployed in Europe than it did before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, NATO officials told CNN. But NATO defense planners are watching closely to see whether the US moves to further downsize its presence there, since that would likely require that NATO reconsider how allied troops are deployed across the continent, one of the officials said.

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