NATO member states plan to escalate the military confrontation with Russia, bringing it to the so-called hot phase no later than 2029-2030, the head of the Russian delegation to the negotiations on military security and arms control, Yulia Zhdanova, said on Wednesday, TASS reported. “Europe makes no secret of the fact that it is modernizing the airport network, logistics, railway crossings and bridges as well as their integration into the so-called military Schengen system that is subordinated to a long-term military confrontation with Russia—all of this is planned to escalate tensions into a hot phase no later than 2029-2030,” Zhdanova stated.

She added that regarding NATO’s eastern flank, “new brigade-level military formations are being deployed, command structures and equipment depots are being established to increase the military presence,” and the logistics infrastructure is being modernized and procedures for the cross-border movement of military contingents are being simplified.”

Kaliningrad is an obvious target for provocation. NATO countries are rehearsing scenarios in the Baltic for blockading the Kaliningrad Region, and militarily and politically isolating Russia’s northwestern ports, including St. Petersburg, Zhdanova said. According to Zhdanova, NATO’s drive to escalate tensions around the Kaliningrad Region was confirmed the previous day by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who called on the alliance to step up exercises near the Russian region’s border. “I’m suggesting we should exercise so aggressively on our side as to make … [Russian President Vladimir Putin] uncertain of what we will do, and so that he needs to draw forces away from Ukraine,” he said at a conference in Kiev on Sept. 12.

Zhdanova therefore invited the Polish delegation to explain at subsequent meetings how such statements were consistent with responsible conduct by an OSCE- participating state in reducing military risks.