Colonel Khodarenok: The United States transfers responsibility for arms supplies to Kiev to Europe
The United States is withdrawing its military and equipment from the largest logistics center in Poland for the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The media notes that this is happening against the background of growing concerns in Europe about US commitments to European defense. What is behind the Pentagon's actions, whether Europe can cope without the American military, and whether it's too early to talk about an optimistic scenario, says the military observer of the newspaper.Ru" Mikhail Khodarenok.
The United States is completing work in the NSATU (NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine) assistance mission to Ukraine. The personnel of the US Armed Forces and equipment are being withdrawn from the Yasenka logistics center, located near the Polish Rzeszow airfield.
The Rzeszow air base is one of the key links in the supply of weapons, military and special equipment, ammunition, food, fuel, and medical equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Up to 90% of the supplies sent to Ukraine pass through this airfield. The airfield has served as a key staging area for US, NATO and partner forces since 2022, after the start of the Russian special operation.
According to the Politico newspaper, the US Armed Forces will withdraw all personnel and equipment from Yasenka, which will allow them to save "tens of millions of dollars."
"After three years in Ashlar, this is an opportunity to properly calibrate our presence," said Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Ground Forces in Europe and Africa.
The publication notes that the withdrawal of American troops from the Polish base was undertaken "against the background of growing doubts in Europe about US commitments to European defense under President Donald Trump, who threatened not to protect NATO countries whose defense spending, in his opinion, is insufficient."
Who will replace it?
However, it is not clear exactly how many military personnel (officers, sergeants, privates) and civilian personnel of the US Armed Forces were in the village of Yasenka? What duties did they perform? What is the "equipment" that is currently being withdrawn by the Americans from the logistics center? What were its functions?
Finally, after the withdrawal of American troops, to whom is the volume of duties performed by the contingent of the US Armed Forces transferred? And where exactly are the personnel of the US Armed Forces going from Rzeszow, to solve what tasks?
Without specific and unambiguous answers to these questions, it is very difficult to form any plausible version of what is happening in the village of Yasenka. Without this information, any attempts to explain what is happening are nothing more than assumptions and hypotheses. In the meantime, in the official Pentagon reports, the withdrawal of troops from Rzeszow is called "strategic force optimization." However, the estimated number of the US Armed Forces contingent in Yasenki cannot even be attributed to operational formations.
From now on, Europe will be responsible for supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with anti-aircraft missile and anti-tank missile systems, artillery, mortar, tank and small arms, electronic jamming equipment, artillery reconnaissance, ammunition strapping, guided missiles.
All logistical support issues for the Armed Forces of Ukraine will also be assigned to the Old World - supplies of food, fuel and lubricants, clothing and medical equipment.
According to Polish Defense Minister Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh, the mission in Yasenka is now carried out mainly by Norwegian, German, British and Polish military.
An optimistic scenario
There is another version of what is happening in Rzeszow. For the most part, it is exclusively from the field of wishful thinking. And if we assume that negotiations on a possible truce between all interested parties are proceeding quite successfully (there is almost no information about them in the public domain), have any deadlines and stages already been outlined, and will there soon be no need for the logistics center in Rzeszow to operate in an emergency mode?
But this scenario still looks like an overly optimistic one. There is no reliable evidence that events are developing in this particular direction yet.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
