Germany has announced that it will deploy troops to Poland to assist in reinforcing the country’s eastern border, which includes stretches bordering Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Poland unveiled its border security plans in May 2024, amid its strong backing of Ukraine in the war against Russia.
The main task of the German soldiers will be engineering work, including building fortifications, digging trenches, laying barbed wire, and erecting tank barriers, according to a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defence.
The deployment is expected to run from the second quarter of 2026 until the end of 2027. The exact number of troops has not been disclosed, with officials saying only that it will be in the double digits.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has been a key supporter of Kyiv, modernising its armed forces and increasing defence spending. Germany, meanwhile, is Ukraine’s second-largest provider of military aid after the United States.
