Reported US plans to store heavy weaponry in eastern Europe would be the most aggressive Western act since the Cold War, a Russian defense ministry official said Monday.

Warehouses dotted across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and several other eastern European countries, are expected to be stocked up with heavy army equipment, according to a report in the New York Times over the weekend.

No final decision has yet been taken by the US, but one government official told Reuters that the Pentagon is planning to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops. A company's worth of equipment, enough for 150 soldiers, would be kept in each of the three Baltic nations, while enough equipment for a company or possibly a battalion, or about 750 soldiers, would also be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and possibly Hungary.

Russia was quick to react to the news. "If heavy US military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics, that will be the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War," Russian defense ministry official General Yuri Yakubov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. "Russia will have no option but to build up its forces and resources on the Western strategic front."