The U.S. military deployed Patriot missiles to Lithuania on Monday, July 10, to take part in upcoming war games, marking the first such deployment of the sophisticated missile defense system to the small Baltic nation, Lithuania's defense ministry announced, according to the American military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that a Russian missile deployment near the Baltic states was "destabilizing", and officials suggested the United States could deploy a Patriot missile battery in the region for NATO exercises in the summer, according to Reuters.