Schemes that were only first publicly discussed last week, the US wasted no time today in announcing that they will in fact begin “prepositioning” large numbers of tanks and artillery along the Russian border to “reassure” their allies.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the decision today during a visit to the Estonian capital of Tallinn, saying the US didn’t want to send tanks to the area and that Russia had forced them to do so with its “effort to take the world backward in time.”

The US has been dramatically increasing its presence in Eastern Europe with several such programs, always trying to justify them as an attempt to forestall a Russian invasion of the region. Over a year into such predictions and no Russian movement in sight, they just keep escalating.

Russian officials condemned the planned deployments as the most aggressive NATO action along their border since the Cold War, and threatened to add to their own forces in the region in response.