BUCHAREST, (Reuters) – The United States will send troops from Germany to Romania on Wednesday night. They will protect NATO’s Eastern flank against potential spillovers from the Ukraine crisis, Romania’s defense ministry stated.

Nearly 3,000 additional US troops are being sent to Poland, Romania and other countries to support Eastern European defences. It is moving to Romania. Stryker (NYSE:) Squadron of U.S. Service Members from Vilseck in Germany.

According to the ministry, a portion of the Squadron (TF) Cougar will arrive in Romania around 2000 GMT. It will then drive across Romania to the Mihail Kogalniceanu Military Base, located in eastern County of Constanta.

Since 1999, U.S. forces used the Mihail Kgalniceanu Air Base on the Black Sea. Romania is a NATO member and hosts a ballistic-missile defense system.

Stryker’s squadron was designed to be deployed quickly and add to the existing 900 U.S. soldiers currently rotating in Romania as part of NATO or under different bilateral arrangements.

France offered to lead the NATO mission in Romania. It could have around 1000 troops from several countries. The decision will be taken at the NATO defence ministers’ meeting that takes place in February.

“Our contribution … we’ll look to augment anything that NATO does, and generally we support NATO efforts to build up the battle group here,” U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet told reporters in Bucharest on Wednesday.

The NATO top agenda is “Bolstering NATO’s eastern flank from North to South” We have repeatedly made it clear to Russia that they must stop escalating the situation and take the military route regarding Ukraine. If they do, then they will see greater NATO capabilities on the east flank.