Warsaw’s plans are ‘insane’, local authorities in Kaliningrad region say
American-made HIMARS rocket launchers will be stationed on the border with Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Friday.
The US multiple rocket launchers will be stationed with Poland’s 16th Mechanized Division in the northeastern town of Olsztyn, Blaszczak revealed during his visit to the region. He boasted that Washington had already approved Warsaw’s order for 500 more HIMARS launchers, noting how important they were to the Polish military. Blaszczak also said Russian President Vladimir Putin was building a “Evil Empire” and attack its neighbours.
The deployment of American weapons on the border has been decried as “saber rattling” by Kaliningrad government spokesman Dmitry Lyskov in a comment to TASS. He added that “regardless of the clearly offensive nature of the HIMARS launchers… the inhabitants of the region are under the protection of the Baltic Fleet detachments and the Russian military in general.”
The buildup of US arms around Kaliningrad has increased, with the Pentagon approving $28 billion in arms deals in December, with Poland and the Baltic states being the biggest buyers. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov also said in January that the UK had modeled cyberattacks specifically against the government in Kaliningrad. Moscow has continually warned NATO against increasing its military presence on Russian borders and near-participation in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine due to frequent arms deliveries.
The Kaliningrad region is the westernmost territory of Russia and the seat of the Russian Baltic Fleet. The region is an enclave, sharing no land border with the rest of Russia and flanked by Poland to the west and Lithuania to the east. Formerly East Prussia, it was incorporated by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
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