Senior Defense Department officials are considering a proposal to withdraw as many as 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe, sparking concern on both continents that it would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to six U.S. and European officials who have been 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.
Russian officials 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, he 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.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, appeared to criticize that approach at a hearing Thursday. “There are some who believe now is the time to reduce drastically our military footprint in Europe,” Wicker said, without providing any details.
“I’m troubled at those deeply misguided and dangerous views held by some midlevel bureaucrats within the Defense Department,” he added, without identifying the officials. “They’ve been working to pursue a U.S. retreat from Europe, and they’ve often been doing so without coordinating with the secretary of defense.”
A Pentagon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. The Army declined to comment.
“The President is constantly reviewing deployments and priorities to make sure he keeps America First,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement to NBC News.
At a hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Gen. Chris Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command and the supreme allied commander of NATO, told the House Armed Services Committee that he opposed reducing U.S. troop levels in Eastern Europe.
“In 2022, we originally surged forces forward,” Cavoli said, referring to the military units that the Biden administration sent after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We have periodically reviewed the force structure at both the military level and the policy level. And I have consistently recommended throughout that period to maintain the forces we surged forward, and I would continue to do so.”
A Pentagon official who testified alongside Cavoli, Catherine Thompson, declined to give her opinion but acknowledged that troop levels in Europe are under review.
Budget cuts expected
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.
Ben Hodges, a retired three-star general who oversaw the Army in Europe, said he wondered what kind of analysis was done to lead officials to consider the proposal to withdraw troops in the region.
“You’ll have a lot less deterrent capability,” Hodges said. “Now Poland obviously is growing its capability, the Romanians are, other European countries are, but that’ll be a hole that’ll have to be filled.”
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.
