How a tiny 60-mile stretch of land in central Europe known as the Suwalki Gap could spark a nuclear apocalypse
The Suwalki Gap connects Moscow's ally Belarus to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad - but it is a patch of closely monitored NATO territory
A 60-MILE stretch of land in eastern Europe could be where World War Three erupts between the West and Russia, it is claimed.
The Suwalki Gap connects Moscow's ally Belarus to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad - but is a patch of closely monitored NATO territory.
Winding along the borders of Lithuania and Poland, in recent years it has become the site of some of NATO's largest post-Cold War military exercises.
This is because Vladimir Putin has initiated a fierce armament race in neighbouring Kaliningrad.
It is here Russia's huge Baltic Fleet is based, as are multiple Russian air bases and a new Iskander-M missile system - nuclear warheads capable of hitting targets 310miles away.
Now David A Andelman, the author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today, a book on causes of modern conflicts, has issued a dire warning.
He told : "If Vladimir Putin takes comfort in NATO's waffling, or doubts US willingness to spring to the defence of the Baltic republics, it's here any shootout between NATO and Russia could start. Or even World War III.
Describing Poland, Lithuania and Latvia as Putin's "next targets", he noted they are pro-American following the collapse of the communist Soviet Union.
"But while the clear advantages of the prosperity brought by a democratic capitalism that has taken strong roots in all three of the Baltics is a powerful attraction, there remains an overarching fear that two decades of such progress could be snuffed in an instant by six divisions of Russian armour.";
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