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The glitzy G2A Arena opposite Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport normally plays host to trade shows and business exhibitions in south-east Poland’s largest city.
But in the last month new tenants have moved in, erecting metal sheets a few metres high that make it nearly impossible to peer inside and see what is going on, as military planes buzz overhead.
There is a public entrance and the new tenants, the US military, are on hand discreetly showing their presence. A handful of unarmed American soldiers stand at the gate, after US troops moved into the arena about a month ago amid fears that Russia would invade Ukraine, which borders Nato member-state Poland.
They are just some of the thousands of US troops recently deployed to Poland on Nato’s eastern flank as tensions with Russia surged. Those fears would ultimately be realised last week when Russia invaded Ukraine, a non-Nato member.
Nato insists it will not send troops to Ukraine, although it is arming Kyiv with weapons and has bolstered its presence in eastern Europe.
The soldiers at the G2A Arena are likely to be elite US paratroopers deployed to Rzeszow, a city better known as a business destination about 80 kms from the Ukrainian border. Asked if he was a member of the North Carolina-based 82nd Airborne Division, which has formed the bulk of the additional US deployment and has based itself at the arena, one soldier at the gate paused and then said he was unable to comment.
The 82nd Airborne Division's commanding general, Maj Gen Chris Donahue, was the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan.
There is a chunk of land adjoining the wider Rzeszow-Jasionka airfield that is normally home to Polish troops. A few can be seen patrolling in a small section of the perimeter fully armed with weapons and protective head gear, but the uptick in Nato activity is new.
On Wednesday, the small civilian airport appeared to be operating as normal, as taxi drivers loitered at a coffee shop inside the departures hall. On Thursday, flights were set to depart to London Luton, Dublin and Warsaw with Ryanair and Poland’s flag carrier LOT Polish Airlines.
But within the airport perimeter giant military cargo planes were also stationed and could be seen arriving and departing. They arrive carrying “defensive” military supplies for the Ukrainian forces, as well as humanitarian aid.
One local resident, viewing the airport on its perimeter from his bike, said the US military had arrived about a month ago. But he said that there had also been an increase in the variety of planes recently, probably from different Nato member states, in a sign of the airport’s wider importance.
Another local agreed that the troop build-up had begun a month ago, saying he could hear the military aircraft moving around at night — even if he could not see them. “I think they will be here for a while,” he said, referring to the US military in Rzeszow.
Most of the international community has lined up against Moscow in the UN to demand it withdraw from Ukraine, as Russian forces renewed their attacks on the country's second-biggest city Kharkhiv and laid siege to its strategic ports. One million refugees have fled Ukraine in the week since Russia's invasion, the UN has said.
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Damage after the shelling of buildings in central Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tank obstacles to be placed on roads around Kyiv as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
Anti-war protesters attach sunflowers to barriers in front of the Russian embassy. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers prepare food for displaced people outside Lviv railway station in western Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher north-east of Kyiv. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees rest at Warsaw East train station in Poland. EPA -
Children look out from a carriage window as a train prepares to depart from a station in Lviv to the town of Uzhhorod near the border with Slovakia. AFP -
A girl who fled Ukraine is reunited with her father in Medyka, south-eastern Poland. AP Photo -
Tears outside a house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP Photo -
A civil defence member is poised to shoot as a vehicle approaches a checkpoint in Gorenka. AP Photo -
A Ukrainian civil defence member in the garden of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike. AP Photo -
Members of the US Army 3rd Infantry Division board a plane bound for Germany in Savannah, Georgia. EPA -
Prayers for peace in Ukraine at the Vatican's Saint Peter's Square. AFP -
A woman (right) hugs an arriving passenger from a train carrying refugees at Berlin's central station. EPA -
Firefighters battle a blaze in a Kharkiv police building hit by shelling. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman makes a phone call after crossing the Slovakian border. AFP -
A doctor takes shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Debris which locals say was caused by shelling in separatist-controlled Horlivka, Donetsk. Reuters -
MPs in London give a standing ovation to Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, who was in the public gallery. AP -
Distraught women and children fleeing Ukraine wait to enter Poland at the Korczowa crossing. Getty -
Newborn Ivan lies next to his mother as they shelter in the basement of a Kyiv perinatal centre. Reuters -
Firefighters hand water to people in a Ukrainian train full of refugees in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Ukrainian refugees queue to file for residency permits at Prague's police headquarters. AFP -
Firefighters work to contain a blaze in buildings housing the Kharkiv regional police department. AFP -
A woman and her children sit in a tent in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter. AP -
Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze at the Kharkiv National University building, which city officials said was damaged by Russian shelling. Reuters -
An elderly woman comforts a child as they take shelter inside an underground station in Kyiv. Reuters -
People queue at a pharmacy in central Kyiv. Reuters -
A woman is consoled by a volunteer after fleeing from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the border crossing in Siret, Romania. Reuters -
A Ukrainian civilian in the city of Zhytomyr practises throwing petrol bombs. Reuters -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses after an interview with Reuters in Kyiv. Reuters -
A blast is seen at Kyiv's TV tower. Reuters -
A girl in Siret, Romania, covers herself with a blanket after fleeing from Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, acknowledges applause from US first lady Jill Biden as they attend President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address in Washington. AFP -
A man walks past the remains of Russian military vehicles in Bucha, close to Kyiv. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on a blown-up bridge on Kyiv's northern front. Defending the capital is a 'key priority', Ukraine's president has said. AFP -
Russian aircraft on the ground at Luninets Airbase, Belarus, about 50 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border. AFP -
People look at the gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha. AP -
A woman with a child who fled from the war in Ukraine reunite with their family after crossing the border in Medyka, Poland. AP -
Animal keeper Kirilo Trantin comforts an elephant at Kyiv Zoo. AP -
An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha. AP -
Ukrainian families say goodbye as they prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Paramedics move a man who was wounded by shelling in a residential area of Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. AP -
Rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike in Zhytomyr. Reuters -
US actor and director Sean Penn attends a press briefing at the Presidential Office in Kyiv. Reuters -
Demonstrators participate in a protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square in Washington. AFP -
Ukrainian soldiers rest while others eat near the front line with Russian troops in northern Kyiv. AP -
A barricade made of trams, buses and sand bags is seen through the window of car in the northern part of Kyiv. AP -
Members of the European Parliament applaud after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at a special session to debate its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
Ambassadors and diplomats walk out as Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (on screen) speaks during a recorded message at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. EPA
Despite the conflict and the Nato troop build-up, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the military alliance was not contemplating enforcing a no fly-zone in Ukraine because that could put Nato in a direct confrontation with Russia.
Last month, but before Russia invaded Ukraine, the US said it was planning to temporarily deploy around 4,700 additional soldiers to member Poland in response to the Russian troop build-up around Ukraine
That arrival brought the US military presence in Poland to around 10,000 troops on rotation.
The cyclist watching the airfield said that, despite the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine and the “unusual” increase in military presence, he was not concerned. “Poland is a member of Nato,” he said.
