Nato faces ‘rapid threat’ from Russia within the Baltic Sea, says Germany’s high admiral | EUROtoday

Russia is testing Europe’s limits within the Baltic Sea and creating an imminent menace for the continent, the top of the German navy has warned.

Increasingly hostile actions by the Russian army, together with low-flying fight ships and the sabotage of naval bases, are the prelude to an escalation, vice admiral Jan Christian Kaack advised The Times.

“We [and Russian warships] see each other at sea every day. Things can happen there, by chance or by design: carelessness, a misfired shot,” he stated.

“So the expectation is high that a possible escalation will occur in the maritime domain. We have to prepare the men and women for that.”

Nato has been more and more involved concerning the Kremlin’s intentions after a number of drone incursions into member territory over current months. Several specialists have warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin might be pushing the boundaries of the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence clause.

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The borders of the Baltic states have been on the centre of such discussions, together with town of Narva in Estonia or alongside the Polish-Lithuanian border that separates Leningrad from Belarus, in accordance with the publication.

But not too long ago, Nato sources stated planners have been exploring the consequences of Russian army motion on the Baltic Sea. The space has been steadily known as “Lake Nato” after Sweden and Finland joined. But Mr Kaack warned that Putin may nonetheless trigger injury by slicing off sea routes.

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“This is not a Nato lake and it never will be for as long as the Russians have Kaliningrad and St Petersburg,” he defined. “The Baltic sea is very narrow, which means we face a rapid threat.”

The admiral additionally warned about the usage of Russia’s shadow fleet in finishing up such incursions.

“I think one can see that the Russian state is desperately trying to get the things it can still sell out onto the world’s oceans,” he continued.

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“To achieve this effect, arming them might at some point be a logical step. That changes our calculations: how much risk I can take of ending up in a situation [where a shadow fleet vessel is boarded] with armed force on board or not.”

The US has insisted that cable and pipeline damages weren’t the results of sabotage however Mr Kaack stated it was unattainable for crews to not discover anchors slipping because the sound is “like a tank driving over a cobblestoned market square”.

It comes as police examine a marketing campaign of sabotage in opposition to German naval services on land. Two staff have been arrested on suspicion of pouring metal pellets into the engine of a naval corvette and eradicating caps from gasoline tanks.