Moscow authorities specify that the Baltic Sea Fleet will conduct “dozens” of military exercises this winter, both at sea and on land, in a particularly sensitive border area.
Russia’s Baltic Fleet plans to conduct “dozens” of maneuvers at sea and on land in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia, over the coming winter. The announcement was made this Saturday through a statement four days after the crisis triggered by the fall in Poland last Tuesday of a Ukrainian air defense missile initially believed to be Russian.
The truth is that senior US, European and NATO leaders pointed out that had it not been for the military invasion of Ukraine, no one in Poland would have been killed by any missile and that the ultimate responsibility for what happened inevitably rests with Moscow . Washington even spoke of further strengthening its military apparatus in Eastern Europe.
In this way, President Vladimir Putin seems to have decided to counter what he sees as an increased threat posed to Russia by the United States and its NATO allies by permanently training its navy and army in the westernmost extremity of the country. According to the Russian agencies, in addition to ships from the Baltic Fleet, “aircraft, air defense forces, tanks and motorized ground units” will also participate in these exercises.
According to information released by the Russian Navy and Defense Ministry, it will be “large-scale, multi-level maneuvers” in response to “increased alliance activity near Russia’s borders.” Kaliningrad, whose capital was ancient Königsberg, is a particularly vulnerable area because it lies north of Poland and west of Lithuania, both NATO members heavily involved in military aid to Ukraine.
There is also the circumstance that Poland has refused entry into its territory to the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, who was preparing to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security on December 1 and 2 and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Lodz. This decision by Warsaw has caused an uproar in Moscow, which describes it as a “provocation”.
Poland currently chairs the OSCE and, according to Moscow, has “broken the rules” of the organization. With such destructive decisions, the Poles, with the support of their relatives in the West, are pushing the OSCE into the abyss and depriving it of one of its last chances to prove its relevance in strengthening security and establishing cooperation, for which it was created,” reads the statement released this Saturday by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Poland warned on Friday that it would deny Lavrov entry because the Russian delegation “is not allowed to take in persons sanctioned by the European Union following Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine on February 24”.
In addition, NATO on Thursday morning charged that two Russian warplanes flew close range over Alliance ships in the Baltic Sea, in a low-flying flight of only 91 metres, a maneuver considered highly dangerous. Apparently the Russian pilots did not respond to the warning messages. The Baltic Sea, already strategically important, has become a zone of tension after Sweden and Finland decided to apply for NATO membership.
Source: La Verdad
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