In an Oct. 6 article, “Poland Moving Troops To Its Borders, Rehearsing Kaliningrad’s Blockade—Expert,” TASS reports on Russian military expert Alexander Stepanov’s contention that Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki having signed a decree on Oct. 3 that formally authorizes deployment of military forces to support the Border Guard along the borders with Germany and Lithuania, is part of a plan to blockade Russia’s Kaliningrad Region. Kaliningrad, located on the Baltic Sea, is a Russian exclave region and city that borders Poland and Lithuania.
Stepanov states that Poland’s “movements of armed forces are not spontaneous actions. The legal formalization and justification of their movements under the pretext of ensuring public safety in border areas is, in fact, aimed at forming echeloned cordons in the event of an attempt to blockade the Kaliningrad Region and contain the Russian forces deployed there.”
Stepanov, the Program Director of the Russian Academy of Political Sciences, pointed out that such Polish military actions could, TASS reported, “be a sign of preparation for hostile actions, such as logistics blockades, airspace closures, and neutralizing the Baltic Fleet’s retaliatory capabilities. According to the expert, Poland, along with the Baltic states, is one of the leaders in saturating the Russian border with HIMARS missile systems with ATACMS and GMLRS.”
Under President Nawrocki’s decree, Poland is in the process of moving up to 5,000 troops to its borders with Germany and Lithuania. Kaliningrad has an arsenal of missiles, including Iskander nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, Bastion-P anti-ship missiles, and S-400 air defense systems. As well, Kaliningrad, one of Russia’s largest industrial centers, is the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet.
On July 19, General Christopher Donahue, the Commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, threatened that NATO could neutralize Kaliningrad “in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do.” The Polish deployment of its troops, in the manner Stepanov warns of, combined with General Donahue’s threats, could lead to immediate nuclear war.
