POLAND received the first 14 U.S. Abrams tanks on Wednesday (June 28) as part of a deal with Washington signed in 2022.

Warsaw ordered a total of 250 state-of-the-art Abrams battle tanks in addition to 116 modernised ones as it seeks to bolster its military in an effort to deter potential Russian aggression on its eastern border.

Speaking in Szczecin where the tanks were delivered, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said soldiers from the 18th Mechanized Division of the Polish Army had been already trained by the U.S. Army to operate the tanks.

"They will close the Brest Gate ... a strip of land that stretches from the far east, reaching the Vistula River and our task is to close this gate, deter the aggressor, make the aggressor not enter the Polish soil," Blaszczak said.

The tank delivery comes at a time of rising concerns of some NATO states

about the arrival of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, in Belarus after leading an aborted mutiny.

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