Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas
Kaja Kallas told reporters that the alliance’s existing defence plans for the three Baltic states was to allow them to be overrun before liberating them after 180 days.
“Those of you who have been to Tallinn and know our old town and the centuries of history that’s here and centuries of culture that’s here — that would all be wiped off the map, including our people, our nation”, said Kaja Kallas
Instead of retreating and then attempting to take back territory, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are pushing Nato to defend every piece of territory from the first day on, especially after seeing Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
Commenting on what she called Nato’s plan “to lose it and liberate it afterwards”, she said the atrocities allegedly carried out by Russian troops in the Ukrainian town of Bucha took place about 80 days after the invasion began. “Now everyone sees that this tripwire concept doesn’t really work,” Kallas said.
Asked about Kallas’s comments, a Nato official said the alliance “has the plans in place to deter threats and defend all allies, but we never go into operational details. The secretary-general made clear that strengthening deterrence and defence is one of the key decisions at next week’s Nato summit. We will do more to ensure we can defend every inch of allied territory, at all times and against any threat. We will adapt the Nato force structure, with more forces at high readiness. We will also have more Nato forward-deployed combat formations, to strengthen battle groups in the east.”