Russia rehearses an attack on Finland and the Baltic countries – media

Russia has carried out attacks on Finland and the Baltic countries, including Estonia, as well as Norway. The Finnish publication Iltalehti wrote this on Saturday, December 28, citing NATO sources.

“Russia is creating scenarios of a large-scale attack on the West with the participation of tens of thousands of military personnel,” the publication said, citing military reports.

It was noted that when practicing the attack, the Russians paid special attention to the coordination of different units, in particular missile, naval, air and ground forces.

“If such actions are implemented, the conflict may spread to the territories of Finland, Norway and the Baltic countries,” the authors of the material indicate.

NATO sources emphasized that one of the main directions of Russian attack is the north of Norway, where attacks can be carried out by sea, land and air from Murmansk. In this scenario, Russia plans to land troops in Finland and launch missiles from the Kola Peninsula.

It was also mentioned that in Lapland the Russians may try to quickly seize Ivalo airport.

According to Russian plans, the southern coast of Finland and southeastern Finland could be attacked by missile forces of the Russian 44th Army Corps.

“The goal of this attack may not be a breakthrough in Finland, but the capture of the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland and southeastern Finland. Thus, the Russians will complicate the Finnish support for the defense of Estonia, ” publication letter.

In addition, according to NATO sources, the Russian 6th Army may try to penetrate Estonia and Latvia with a massive tank, artillery and missile strike. The purpose of the attack in this case was to capture the capitals of Tallinn and Riga.

Russia could invade Lithuania through Belarus to gain land communication between Russian Kaliningrad and Belarus, that is, to occupy the so-called Suwalki corridor. If this operation is successful, NATO forces in the Baltics are in danger of being geographically trapped.

At the same time, missile forces stationed in Kaliningrad and Russia’s Baltic Fleet could attack the Swedish island of Gotland and prevent the deployment of NATO ground forces there.

The publication recalls that in 2017, during exercises in the West, Russia had already carried out an attack on Norway, Finland and the Baltic countries. The source of the publication says that the Russians have not abandoned their attack plan, but they want to implement it after the war in Ukraine.

“Russia aims to create a single buffer zone in Europe, from the Arctic region to the Baltic and Black Seas to the Mediterranean Sea,” the publication notes.

As the article points out, the main parts of the Russian ground forces are involved in the offensive against Ukraine, but sources say that Russia is capable of creating an offensive force of at least 600 thousand soldiers in borders of the Baltics and Finland.

Earlier, Russia threatened Poland with “potential defeat” due to the opening of the US Aegis Ashore missile defense base on the country’s territory.