The banner of victory seems to taunt the barbed wire which stretches as far as the eye can see. The red Soviet flag with sickle and hammer, exact replica of the one who was hoisted, 1er May 1945, on the Palais du Reichstag, in Berlin, floats, at the end of May, at the intersection of the three borders which separated the Oblast from Kaliningrad, Poland and Lithuania. At this specific location, at the crossroads of the Russian state and two member countries of NATO, begins the corridor of Suwalki.
Considered as an ultrasensible place in the event of a widespread conflict between Moscow and European capitals, this 65 -kilometer long strip of land marrying the line of demarcation between Lithuania, to the north, and Poland, in the south, is enclosed at the two ends by the Russian exclavement of Kaliningrad, to the west, and the Belarus, to the east. It would suffice that Russia and its ally take it so that earthly access to the Baltic countries is cut. A dreaded scenario since Vladimir Putin launched his troops to attack Crimea and Donbass in 2014, then from all of Ukraine, in 2022. “Pre-war period”according to the expression formulated, in March 2024, by the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk.
“It is one of the areas most exposed to risk [de conflit] In Europe, Acquiesce Marek Swierczynski, expert in security questions at the Polityka Insight analysis center in Warsaw. Of course, NATO also has a military position in the territory of the Baltic States [membres de l’Alliance depuis 2004],, But without reinforcements from the Suwalki corridor, defending them would probably become impossible. »»
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Source: Lemonde