Lithuania, Poland launch joint military drill in Suwałki Gap

April 21, Pozirk. The Lithuanian and Polish armed forces have launched the joint tactical exercise Brave Griffin in the Suwałki Gap area, the BNS news agency reported.

The news comes one month after the Belarusian leader’s made a statement suggesting that the area was particularly vulnerable to an attack from the east.

US and Portuguese units will also participate in the drill, which will last until April 26, lrt.lt said.

Lithuania will deploy 1,500 troops of the Žemaitija infantry brigade to practice, defensive scenarios in accordance with the Lithuanian-Polish Orša Plan, it said.

LRT reported that the Sword Strike exercise continues in Lithuania with US troops participating.

On March 26, while inspecting troops near the border with Lithuania, Alaksandar Łukašenka asked the commander of the Northwestern Operational Command how many kilometers separated them from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

“Forty-two kilometers,” Maj. Gen. Alaksandar Navumienka replied.

“That’s practically nothing,” said Łukašenka. “It’s wrong for them to behave like that. Now you would have to confront the Baltic republics.”

On March 29, the Lithuanian foreign ministry handed Belarusian Chargé d’Affaires Jarasłaŭ Chmyl a note of protest in connection with these remarks by Łukašenka.

Lithuania said he baselessly criticized the country as a military threat, suggesting that the Suwałki Gap was vulnerable and ordering the Belarusian army to prepare for possible confrontation with the Baltic States and Poland.

The Suwałki Gap is a narrow strip in Poland and Lithuania that some Western experts call a “weak link.” Its occupation by Belarusian and Russian forces would cut off the Baltics from the rest of the EU and connect Belarus’ Hrodna region with Kaliningrad.

Belarus has been conducting a comprehensive combat-readiness exercise involving thousands of reservists since March 11 in response to Steadfast Defender, NATO’s multi-domain exercise taking place from late January to the end of May.

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