A German military aircraft carrying troop reinforcements landed at Lithuania’s Kaunas airport on Monday, amid fears in the region over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The A400M airplane carried around 70 troops of what is expected to grow to a 360-strong German deployment, which comes on top of existing NATO forces in the region, a spokesperson for the alliance’s enhanced forward presence battlegroup said.
The new deployments include artillery, reconnaissance troops and medics from units throughout Germany, with arrivals expected to continue throughout this week.
German soldiers make up about half of the 1,100 troop-strong battlegroup already present in Lithuania, which also includes troops from Belgium, Czechia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway.