Putin threatens to use Wagner fighter jets to invade NATO’s ‘weakest link’ in Poland and Lithuania ‘within hours’
RUSSIA is threatening to use its mercenary army of Wagner to invade NATO’s “weakest link” in Poland and Lithuania – a move likely to trigger World War III.
A senior Putin parliamentarian announced on state television that the mercenary group based in Belarus was ready to attack a key NATO passport “in a few hours”.
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The Suwalki Corridor – or the Gap – is a 60-mile strip of land on the border between Poland and Lithuania – and has now come under threat from a Russian politician.
It is of enormous strategic importance for NATO and the EU – as well as for Russia.
For the West, it’s the only land connection to the three former Baltic Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are said to be vulnerable to Putin if current tensions heat up.
For Russia, control of the corridor would allow a land connection between the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, the main base of Putin’s Baltic Fleet, and the Kremlin’s steadfast ally Belarus.
Reserve Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov, now a deputy and loyalist chairman of the Russian parliament’s Defense Committee, told state television: “It is clear that Wagner [mercenary army] went to Belarus to train the Belarusian Armed Forces…
“There is a place like the Suwalki Corridor.
“Should something happen, we need this Suwalki Corridor badly…
“An assault force [based in Wagner forces in Belarus] is ready to take this corridor in a few hours.”
His “shock fist” land grab plan would hit sparsely populated areas dubbed NATO’s “Achilles’ heel” or “soft belly.”
Because it could be the first point of contact in a third world war, the corridor has been called “the most dangerous place on earth”.
A Russian move here with the state-backed Wagner would likely trigger Clause 5 of NATO and turn the alliance against Russia.
Nevertheless, due to the threat from Moscow, Poland is rapidly rearming Germany is to station 4,000 troops permanently in Lithuania while NATO increases its presence in the Baltic States.
Thousands of Wagner troops have arrived in Belarus in the past few days.
More were seen on the road today in Russia’s Lipetsk region en route to landlocked countries.
More were seen on the road today in Russia’s Lipetsk region en route to landlocked countries.
After Wagner ended the armed mutiny on June 24, an agreement was reached to transfer troops to Belarus.
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