Polish minister proposes drills near Kaliningrad to draw Russian troops from Ukraine

WARSAW, Poland — NATO allies could hold drills in proximity of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave in an attempt to push Moscow to weaken its military posture in Ukraine and withdraw some of its troops there, said Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

Speaking at a Sept. 11 panel discussion held during the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, Sikorski said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the Kremlin lowering its defenses in the Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Poland and Lithuania.

While NATO should not engage in any offensive actions against Kaliningrad, an intensification of the alliance’s drills around the area could force Russia to remove some of its forces from Ukraine, the official said.

“We should not be thinking about our confrontation with Russia only as being confined to Ukraine,” Sikorski said. “I was in Latvia just three days ago on a Polish base, we have a tank company there, and … there are no troops on the other side. We closely monitor, as you may imagine, the Kaliningrad exclave. There are hardly any troops there.”

“I’m suggesting we should exercise so aggressively on our side as to make … [Russian President Vladimir Putin] uncertain of what we will do, and so that he needs to draw forces away from Ukraine,” the deputy prime minister said.

A 2023 report by the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses indicates that, prior to the war in Ukraine, Kaliningrad’s military capabilities had been boosted with the deployment of various forces, including the 11th Army Corps whose composite ground forces alone had a nominal count of up to 18,000 troops.

Last September, as Russia and Belarus were preparing the “Zapad 2025” joint military drill , the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence estimated that only “several thousand” troops were to be stationed in Kaliningrad for the exercise.

Sikorski’s statement comes as Poland is readying to host the first military drills for the so-called Coalition of the Willing with British and French forces. At the same time, under the country’s East Shield initiative worth around 10 billion zloty ($2.7 billion), the Polish military is advancing projects to ramp up defensive infrastructure, including fortifications and natural terrain obstacles along the roughly 800 km (497 miles) of the nation’s border with Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

波兰华沙——波兰副总理兼外交部长拉多斯瓦夫·西科尔斯基表示，北约盟国可能会在俄罗斯加里宁格勒飞地附近举行演习，以迫使莫斯科削弱其在乌克兰的军事态势，并从那里撤出部分军队。

西科尔斯基在9月11日于基辅举行的雅尔塔欧洲战略会议期间的小组讨论会上表示，俄罗斯入侵乌克兰导致克里姆林宫降低了其在加里宁格勒飞地（与波兰和立陶宛接壤）的防御。

这位官员表示，虽然北约不应针对加里宁格勒采取任何进攻行动，但加强该联盟在该地区周围的演习可能会迫使俄罗斯从乌克兰撤出部分军队。

“我们不应该仅仅把与俄罗斯的对抗局限于乌克兰，”西科尔斯基说。“就在三天前，我还在拉脱维亚的一个波兰基地，我们在那里驻扎了一个坦克连，而且……对方没有驻军。正如你所能想象的，我们密切关注着加里宁格勒飞地。那里几乎没有驻军。”

“我的建议是，我们应该在我们这边进行非常积极的军事演习，让……（俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京）不确定我们会做什么，这样他就需要从乌克兰抽调兵力，”副总理说。

美国海军分析中心 2023 年的一份报告显示，在乌克兰战争爆发之前，加里宁格勒的军事能力通过部署各种部队得到了提升，其中包括第 11 军，该军的地面部队名义上就有多达 18,000 名士兵。

去年九月，当俄罗斯和白俄罗斯准备举行“西部-2025”联合军事演习时，立陶宛国防部估计，只有“几千名”士兵会驻扎在加里宁格勒参加演习。

西科尔斯基发表此番言论之际，波兰正准备与英国和法国军队举行所谓的“自愿联盟”首次联合军事演习。与此同时，根据波兰价值约100亿兹罗提（约合27亿美元）的“东部之盾”计划，波兰军方正在推进一系列项目，旨在加强防御基础设施建设，包括在波兰与加里宁格勒和白俄罗斯接壤的约800公里（497英里）长的边境线上修建防御工事和天然地形障碍。

Jaroslaw Adamowski 是《防务新闻》驻波兰记者。