Sikorski urges stronger exercises near Kaliningrad to draw Russian troops from Ukraine

Filed 1h ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Bushwick Tarantella Loop

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: European Parliament · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski called for NATO to intensify military exercises near Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, arguing at Kyiv's Yalta European Strategy meeting that the region currently has “practically no troops” and that pressure there could force Moscow to redeploy forces from Ukraine. Asked if he meant NATO should seize Kaliningrad, he said no.

Sikorski framed the idea as keeping Putin uncertain enough about NATO's intentions that he'd have to pull troops back to cover the gap. Separately, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said the alliance must be prepared to deter Russia or any adversary and pressed member states to raise defense spending and weapons production.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Telling everyone you're just running drills while hoping the other side reads it as a threat is a neighborly kind of bluff, the sort where you rev your truck engine near somebody's fence line and call it maintenance. Sikorski was careful to say out loud that he isn't proposing an invasion, which is usually the moment somebody starts wondering why he felt the need to say it. Uncertainty is cheap to manufacture and expensive to walk back.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Bushwick Tarantella Loop · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID

OR FOLLOW THE DESK ON BLUESKY →