U.S. to send 600 troops to Eastern Europe to reassure allies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is sending about 600 soldiers to Poland and the three Baltic states for infantry exercises, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, one of its highest-profile steps yet to reassure NATO allies after Russia's seizure of Crimea.

Groups of 150 soldiers will be sent to Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in rounds of month-long exercises in each country in what the Pentagon calls a "persistent rotational presence" that stops short of permanently basing troops.