Bogodel: Baltics is Most Likely Site of Military Escalation in Near Future

The Baltics are again in the crosshairs. NATO's attempts to establish control over the Gulf of Finland and the escalation in the region make the Western direction a key risk factor. The expert's opinion.

Andrei Bogodel, Deputy Head of the Faculty of the General Staff of the Armed Forces at the Military Academy of Belarus:

"The situation is being escalated and attention is drawn in order to subsequently obtain various kinds of funding. Poland has already received 40 billion for defense against Putin and Lukashenko. Now Estonia is dreaming of the same. They're bending over backwards, as they say. Whether they'll get it or not is another matter. The next goal is to force aircraft, especially Russian military aircraft, to conduct overflights in coordination with the authorities of NATO countries. Or better yet, to stop such overflights altogether."

The Alliance is attempting to establish total control over the narrow isthmus of the Gulf of Finland, where the tanker fleet has already been the subject of repeated provocations, the expert recalled.

"These incidents could lead to anything. The Baltic is the most likely site of military escalation in the near future. For us, Belarusians, this is a very dangerous wake-up call, since this western direction is our direction, the responsibility of the regional group of troops and forces, as our President has repeatedly stated," Andrei Bogodel emphasized. "At the same time, the Zapad-2025 exercises demonstrated that the Union State has absolutely no aggressive plans to start a conflict, something we absolutely do not expect from the opposite side today."