On NATO’s Front Line, Russia’s Threat Draws New Allied Forces

Until recently, the military base here near the Black Sea was little more than a stopover. Now it is at the front line of NATO’s defense against Russia.

U.S. troops have for years used the aging compound’s airstrip as a transit point for supplying operations in Afghanistan, but in recent weeks American and allied militaries have deployed more than 1,800 personnel, hundreds of vehicles and other military equipment to the wind-swept fields.

They are here because one of the cornerstones of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization states that an attack on one of its 30 members represents an attack on all. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, fears have increased that the conflict could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders.

“We’re here to send a message to Russia: Don’t set one foot across the border,” said Col. Vincent Minguet, the commander of a new NATO force that includes about 500 French and 300 Belgian troops.

The Mihail Kogălniceanu base is now part of a new front line for NATO in Romania, which shares a 400-mile-long border with Ukraine. The troops are part of four new battle groups recently deployed by NATO in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. They are there to complement the forces that NATO sent to Poland and the Baltic countries after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The battle groups’ mission is to reinforce NATO’s eastern defenses and deter Russian aggression. Romania, Hungary and Slovakia share a land border with Ukraine, while Bulgaria has access to the Black Sea.

“President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has changed our security environment for the long term,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last month after an extraordinary summit of national leaders in Brussels. “It is a new normal and NATO is responding.”

Russia’s invasion has prompted the alliance to place an unprecedented number of troops, planes and vehicles on alert. The alliance has deployed 40,000 troops on its eastern flank, along with significant air and naval assets. Mr. Stoltenberg has noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants NATO pushed back from its eastern positions, but the invasion has instead brought a greater number of alliance troops to his doorstep.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who in 2019 declared NATO was experiencing a “brain death,” has said the alliance has been jolted back into life. “I think NATO just received an electric shock,” Mr. Macron said at the summit in Brussels last month.

The Mihail Kogălniceanu base is evidence of that. Every day, helicopters and jet fighters fly overhead and tanks roll across empty fields as part of regular military exercises.

The base is now home to about 3,000 soldiers, including around 1,900 Americans, some of whom have recently been deployed from Germany. The base includes a post office, a theater and stores. “It’s a city,” said Marcus Fichtl, a U.S. Army spokesman who is currently based in Romania.

More soldiers are expected to arrive in the coming months, according to U.S. and French officials.

Last week, NATO started deploying troops in other parts of Romania as part of large-scale military exercises, said Col. Minguet. Eventually, some troops could be stationed in other military bases across the country, he added.

In the nearby town of Mihail Kogălniceanu, locals are divided over the soldiers’ arrival. For many, Russia has long been a very distant threat. But its invasion of neighboring Ukraine has raised fears of an imminent attack on Romanian soil.

Ramona Codrin, who owns a local grocery store, said she welcomes NATO’s protection. “If the base wasn’t here, the danger would be bigger,” she said.

But others disagree. Vasile Diaconescu, a 28-year-old delivery man, said the new military presence adds fuel to the fire. “We are a target now,” he said. “Why do they come here to disturb us?”

In March, a French soldier was about to get in his car and drive to the ski slopes in the Alps when he received an urgent message. He had recently returned from Africa’s Sahel region, where French-led troops have spent nearly a decade battling Islamist terrorist groups, and have started to withdraw. There would be no skiing this year as he was needed in Romania.

“We’re here to stay,” he said.