Kaya Callas told reporters Wednesday that the alliance’s existing defense plans for the three Baltic states were to allow them to be occupied before their release after 180 days. Noting that more than 100 days have passed since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Estonian Prime Minister said: “If you compare the sizes of Ukraine and the Baltic countries, it would mean the complete destruction of the countries and our culture. ” He added: “Those of you who have gone [the capital] “Tallinn and get to know our old city and the centuries of history that are here and the centuries of culture that are here – all this will be erased from the map, including our people, our nation.” Her comments came ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid next Tuesday, at which the alliance will discuss plans to defend its eastern side in light of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, including how to better defend the Baltic states. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are pushing for the current strategy of having around a thousand foreign troops in each country acting as ropes to be replaced by one in which NATO seeks to defend every inch of its territory from day one, especially after seeing Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Commenting on what he called NATO’s plan to “lose it and then release it”, he said the atrocities allegedly committed by Russian troops in the Ukrainian city of Butsa took place about 80 days after the invasion began. “Now everyone sees that this tripwire idea doesn’t really work,” Kallas said. She added that she had spoken to foreign troops stationed in Estonia – mainly those in the United Kingdom – and was told that, given current plans, they would disappear from a possible Russian invasion “they do not like the idea that. . . they are supposed to die. “ Asked about Callas’ comments, a NATO official said the alliance “has plans to avert threats and defend all allies, but we will never go into operational details.” “The Secretary-General has made it clear that strengthening deterrence and defense is one of the key decisions at next week’s NATO summit.” They added: “We will do more to ensure that we can defend every inch of allied territory, at any time and against any threat. We will adjust the structure of NATO forces, with more forces on high alert. “We will also have more battle formations to be deployed in NATO to strengthen battle groups in the east.” Callas is calling for a division of troops, between 20,000 and 25,000 NATO troops, to be deployed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. But this did not mean that all these troops would be foreign or should have a permanent base in every country. Thousands of troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will probably be included in a brigade – 3,000 to 5,000 – of foreign troops based in the country, increasing to two brigades over time, Callas said. Berlin has proposed a “strong battle brigade” of troops in Lithuania – to add about 1,000 troops to the current battalion – but with most of the troops based in Germany, they can move to the Baltic in a short time or for exercises. Callas said of the so-called German model: “I would not be so obsessed with these different models, since they give the result that we are able to defend ourselves from day one.” The Baltic states are also calling for an increase in the existing air force police mission in the region to enable NATO aircraft to shoot down enemy aircraft if necessary. Callas stressed that Estonia was “the biggest supporter” of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, but said it seemed unlikely that Turkey would move to block their membership bids from being resolved by next week’s summit. Additional report by Henry Foy in Brussels
