Trump touts plan for new U.S. base in Poland as NATO ally’s leader warns of “real risk” from Russia

Berlin — The U.S. has made “major progress” on plans to establish a permanent U.S. Army base in Poland, President Trump said Thursday in a social media post. 

“If this goes ahead, the location will be announced very soon,” Mr. Trump said in his Truth Social post, which was shared by the White House on X. He said the new base would be a “historic step” for the U.S.-Poland alliance.

Poland’s government is likely to welcome the rhetoric as concern mounts over the possible spread of Russia’s ongoing full-scale war on neighboring Ukraine to NATO territory.

A “real risk” of Russia’s war on Ukraine spreading?

Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke in Poland’s parliament, hours before Mr. Trump’s post, of a “real risk that drones or other types of projectiles will enter the territory of one or several countries on the [NATO] eastern flank and even cause destruction.”

Citing unspecified intelligence, Tusk said Russia could portray such an incident — of which there are already numerous examples — even if it is deliberate, as an accident in a bid to erode NATO’s willingness to mount a joint response.

Tusk also referred to a new generation of jet-powered attack drones that Russia has been using to attack Ukraine. Compared to the propeller-driven weapons used for more than four years, the newer drones fly faster and at higher altitudes, making them more difficult to intercept. 

Russia is also increasingly targeting Ukrainian infrastructure near the Polish border, Tusk said.

On Sunday, a Russian drone struck a passenger train inside Ukraine carrying foreign dignitaries on a visit, including senior European officials and former CIA Director David Petraeus, forcing them to evacuate just a few miles from the border with Poland. 

“Maybe they didn’t know that some Americans had been there, or maybe, oppositely, they knew, because I don’t trust them,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News in an exclusive interview this week. 

“I think that they knew,” Zelenskyy added, calling it part of a Russian strategy to intimidate himself and other foreign leaders.  

Another drone struck a truck at a nearby gas station. The drone impacts forced Poland’s border guards to temporarily suspend cross-border traffic, evacuate people from vehicles and enhance security. 

Poland hardens its border

Poland has also boosted its military preparedness. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Tuesday that soldiers from an engineering regiment were reinforcing border guard infrastructure along the Polish-Ukrainian frontier. 

According to the Polish Armed Forces, the measures include the installation of Hesco bastions — wire and mesh structures filled with sand or gravel that are easy to set up as protective barriers — along with new observation and guard posts.

Similar work has been confirmed at three border crossings, in Dorohusk, Medyka and Korczowa. The total number of additional Polish soldiers sent to the border has not been made public. Officials have said the measures should not be considered a general military mobilization or large-scale buildup, as they are intended specifically to reinforce and secure border infrastructure.

But Poland, and its European NATO allies, along with Ukraine and Russia, know a U.S. troop deployment — especially a permanent one — would be a step up in NATO’s fortifications of its eastern flank.

Trump administration’s “confusing” NATO stance

Mr. Trump’s post on Thursday, in which he lauded “our Great U.S./Polish Alliance,” was the latest twist in his administration’s evolving plans and messaging around U.S. troop deployments that have kept close European allies guessing. 

In May, Vice President JD Vance accused media outlets of “overreacting” to an announcement that a planned deployment of 4,000 U.S. forces to Poland had been canceled. Two days later, Mr. Trump announced that the deployment was not only going ahead, but that it would involve 5,000 troops.

“All’s well that ends well,” Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said at the time. 

His Swedish counterpart, Maria Malmer Stenergard, called the U.S. position on joint defense under the nearly 80-year-old NATO alliance, “confusing indeed, and not always easy to navigate.”

The roughly 10,000 U.S. forces currently stationed in Poland are there largely on a rotational basis.

In June, Defense Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz said the U.S. military was considering Poland’s proposal to establish a permanent base, but that no final decision had been made.

Separately, the Pentagon has been conducting a broader review of U.S. troop deployments across Europe. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in announcing the review in June, said the “era of freeriding” by America’s NATO allies was over, accusing them of “shameful” inaction during the Iran war.  

Kosiniak-Kamysz has named Poznań and Wrocław as potential locations for an American base, but no final location has been announced.