Senior U.S. Defense Department officials are considering a proposal to withdraw as many as 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe, NBC News reported on Tuesday, citing six U.S. and European officials briefed on the
matter.
The units under consideration are part of the 20,000 personnel the Biden administration deployed in 2022 to strengthen the defenses of countries bordering Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The numbers are still being discussed, but the proposal could involve removing up to half of the forces sent by Biden.
Internal discussions about reducing American troop levels in Romania and Poland come at a time when President Donald Trump is trying to persuade Putin to agree to a ceasefire.
The six U.S. and European officials, all of whom requested anonymity, described multiple details of the proposal that have not been previously reported to NBC News. If the Pentagon adopts the proposal, it will reinforce fears that the United States is abandoning its longtime allies in Europe who view Russia as a growing threat, European officials said.
The Russians would “assess a downsizing of U.S. forces as a weakening of deterrence, and it will increase their willingness to meddle in various ways across the spectrum in Europe,” said Seth Jones, a senior vice president with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants European allies to take more responsibility for their own defense, allowing the United States to focus its military resources on China and other priorities.
In his first trip abroad as defense secretary, Pete Hegseth said in a speech in Brussels in February that “stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.” Instead, the United States would focus on securing its southern border and countering China, Hegseth said.
Elbridge Colby, whom the Senate is expected to confirm soon to be the Pentagon’s top policy adviser and No. 3 official, has called for a greater focus on China. Colby has argued against devoting more resources to Ukraine and called for reductions in the number of troops in Europe in favor of focusing on the threat from China.
As the Pentagon undergoes budget cuts under Trump, shrinking the U.S. military’s footprint in Europe would free up resources, potentially for the Indo-Pacific region, which administration officials have said they see as a higher strategic priority. Canceling the deployment of combat units to Eastern Europe could also save money for the Army, which is trying to boost investments in innovative equipment and weapons.
Roughly 80,000 American troops are stationed in Europe. After Russia launched the war, lawmakers from both parties backed a strong U.S. military presence along NATO’s eastern flank, seeing it as an important signal to Putin that the United States remains committed to the defense of those border states.
But Trump campaigned on a promise to end the war quickly and is now pushing for a ceasefire. He has taken a very different stance toward Ukraine from that of Biden, who vowed to provide weapons and other aid to Kyiv “as long as it takes” to prevail.
Trump has pressed Ukraine to make concessions upfront. He suspended military and intelligence assistance for a week after a public clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he has made no specific commitment about future U.S. military aid.
Russia is pursuing a major rebuilding and reform of its military, including modernizing equipment and ratcheting up weapons production, according to a Danish intelligence assessment released in February.
If the war in Ukraine ends or is frozen in a ceasefire arrangement, Russia could be capable of waging a large-scale war in Eastern Europe within the next five years if NATO failed to bolster its defenses, the report said.
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