Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło headed an official welcoming ceremony for US troops in the west of the country on Saturday.

“Each Polish family must feel safe. It is the duty of the Polish state, the government to provide security. Today we have made a big step in this direction,” Szydło said during a ceremony that was also attended by Poland’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz.

The US brigade will be stationed in Poland and other countries in the region on a rotating basis part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.

A brigade arriving in Poland comprises some 3,500 soldiers and over 1,000 vehicles including Abrams tanks, Bradley military vehicles and Paladin self-propelled howitzers.

Amid fears of Russian aggression following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, NATO decided at a Warsaw summit last July to deploy four rotating multinational battalions of some 1,000 soldiers each to the military alliance’s eastern flank.