Warsaw’s plans are “saber-rattling,” local authorities in Kaliningrad Region have said
FILE PHOTO © Getty Images / Sherbien Dacalanio
US-made HIMARS rocket launchers will be stationed on the border with Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Friday.
The American multiple rocket launchers will be stationed with Poland’s 16th Mechanized division in the North-Eastern city of Olsztyn, Blaszczak revealed during his visit to the region. He boasted that Washington had already approved Warsaw’s order for 500 more HIMARS launchers, noting how important they were to the Polish army. Blaszczak also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was building an “evil empire” and would attack his neighbors.
The deployment of the American weapons on the border was decried as “saber-rattling” by Kaliningrad government spokesman Dmitry Lyskov in a comment to TASS. He added that “disregarding the clear offensive nature of the HIMARS launchers … the people of the region are under the protection of the Baltic Fleet detachments and Russia’s army in general.”
Read more
The buildup of American weapons around Kaliningrad has increased, as the Pentagon in December approved $28 billion worth of arms deals, with Poland and the Baltic states being the biggest buyers. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov also said in January that the UK had been modeling cyberstrikes specifically against the Kaliningrad government. Moscow has continuously warned NATO against increasing their military presence on Russian borders and almost becoming part of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine due to frequent weapons shipments.
Kaliningrad Region is Russia’s westernmost territory and the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. The region is an exclave, not sharing a land border with the rest of Russia and instead flanked by Poland on the West and Lithuania on the East. Formerly East Prussia, it was incorporated by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
