Army expands Operation Atlantic Resolve to six countries: The U.S. military's Operation Atlantic Resolve will expand into Romania and Bulgaria beginning in late March amid continued fighting and increased tensions in the region.
"Think of Operation Atlantic Resolve as a yearlong, continuous series of exercises from Estonia to Bulgaria," said Lt. Gen. Frederick "Ben" Hodges, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe.
Operation Atlantic Resolve was launched last April in the three Baltic States and Poland as a way for the United States to demonstrate its commitment to NATO as the region faced a new but familiar threat.
The addition of Romania and Bulgaria brings the number of soldiers conducting Atlantic Resolve training and exercises to about 1,900, up from about 900 now, officials from U.S. Army Europe said.
In the last 11 months, Russia has annexed the Crimea region, secured a vital port in the Black Sea and sponsored a civil war in Eastern Ukraine that has claimed thousands of lives – all within a few hundred miles of NATO's borders.
A recent cease-fire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels did not hold, with continued fighting around Debaltseve, a heavily contested railway hub in eastern Ukraine.
"What needs to happen is Moscow needs to abide by the agreement it signed up to and remove their heavy weapons and the Russian forces from Eastern Ukraine and respect the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Wednesday.
The U.S. military will "continue to reassure our allies and partners in NATO through continued exercises, presence, Black Sea air policing," Kirby said.
The Army is expanding Operation Atlantic Resolve "for the purpose of assurance to those allies as well," Hodges said.
