MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The United States deployed a second armored vehicle brigade to Poland as the recent Zapad (West) 2017 Russian-Belarusian exercise was ongoing, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday.
"Against the backdrop of hysteria about Russia's planned military invasion into Poland right during the Zapad 2017 exercise, a second U.S. armored vehicle brigade was moved into Poland behind the scenes and was deployed there (in the populated localities of Boleslawiec, Drawsko Pomorskie, Torun, Skwierzyna and Zagan) with its armored hardware," Konashenkov said.
"At the same time, the military hardware left behind in Poland and the Baltic countries by the third American armored vehicle brigade has not gone anywhere," he said.
"Contrary to all statements made by NATO and the U.S. about an insignificant number of troops amassed near the Russian borders, it is now not a brigade but a mechanized division of the U.S. armed forces that has already de facto been deployed and to which it is possible to send prepared personnel from the nearest American base in Europe (Ramstein, Germany) within a two-hour period," Konashenkov said.