NATO spoke about strengthening the protection of the Suwalki corridor and the Brest Gate

NATO defense plans include strengthening the defense of the Suwalki Gap and the Brest Gate from a possible Russian attack, stated head of the NATO military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, in an interview with the RAR agency.

He clarified that the alliance’s defense plans adopted at the Vilnius summit are the largest changes in military systems since 1949 and involve a return to collective defense. According to him, they are aimed at “containing” Russia. Bauer said that “Russians are everywhere,” including in the south, in space and cyberspace, so NATO needs to strengthen the areas that are under threat – the eastern flank, the far north and the Atlantic Ocean.

NATO would have known about preparations for a possible invasion, the admiral said. “In the case of Poland, Russian troops would have to, among other things, be transferred to Belarus and then assemble on the Polish border. We would have already taken appropriate actions then, even before applying Art. 5 of the treaty,” he said.

A battalion combat group is stationed in Poland, which can be expanded to a brigade if threatened. Such units are located in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and in the southern part of NATO’s eastern flank, Bauer said.

In 2024, NATO plans to exercise Steadfast Defender to practice responding to a possible Russian invasion of the eastern flank, the admiral said.

The Suwalki corridor is actually the border between Poland and Lithuania. This is a land isthmus 100 km between Belarus and the Kaliningrad region. On July 29, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced the movement of about a hundred Wagner PMC fighters to the Belarusian-Polish border in the corridor area and called this decision “a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.” Later, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko statedthat the fighters of the Wagner PMC do not plan to attack the territory of Poland.

Brest Gate is a territory in the area of ​​the Polish-Belarusian border, which is a plain in the vicinity of Brest about 80 km wide. Polish Minister of National Defense Mariusz Blaszczak in August declaredthat Warsaw intends to “close” this area with American Abrams tanks and Apache helicopters.