NATO is plotting ‘takeover’ of Kaliningrad, Russia fears

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that NATO is preparing to launch an offensive to seize Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

Nikolai Patrushev, a senior adviser to Putin and former head of Russia's Security Council, alleged that the military exercises currently taking place in the region are a cover for a planned NATO assault.

“The Western countries are doing everything they can to complicate cargo and passenger transit to Kaliningrad, with the goal of isolating the region and cutting it off from the rest of Russia,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by the state news agency TASS.

“For the second year in a row, NATO has been conducting its largest exercises in decades near our borders. These drills rehearse large-scale offensive actions, from Vilnius to Odesa, including the capture of the Kaliningrad region, blocking shipping routes in the Baltic and Black Seas, and even preemptive strikes on Russia’s nuclear deterrent bases,” he added.

Western intelligence agencies have recently warned that the risk of direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is becoming increasingly plausible.

(QG - Source: Newsweek — Picture : © Unsplash)