February 12, 2016: In early 2016 Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine agreed to form a joint peacekeeping brigade. It was no secret that this was an effort by two NATO nations to form military links with Ukraine without really involving NATO. This gives Russia less incentive to violently oppose the deal and enables two NATO nations to train with and their new peacekeeping partner. The new brigade would have 4,000 troops from Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine and, presumably, most of the equipment would come from Lithuania and Poland. That’s because, in order to join NATO, nations have to standardize a lot of their military equipment and procedures so that cooperation with other NATO allies is automatic. Poland has also asked for a small number of American and other NATO troops to be permanently stationed in Poland, to further dissuade Russia.