NATO is designing “land corridors” to bring US troops and armoured vehicles to the front line in the event of a major Europe-Russia ground war, while Putin calls it “nonsense,” warning of retaliatory measures.
According to The Telegraph, US soldiers will land at one of five ports and follow pre-planned logistical routes to counter an alleged attack by Moscow. The military is developing the plan amid warnings from NATO’s top leadership that Western governments must prepare for conflict with Russia “in the next two decades.”
Logistical routes became a key priority after NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Vilnius last year to train 300,000 troops on high alert to defend the alliance.
Plans envisage US troops landing in Dutch ports. Next, trains will take them through Germany to Poland. US forces would be taken to the port of Rotterdam and then moved east. Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank, chief of NATO’s logistics command, stated:
Ukraine suffers very much from these Russian long-range missile attacks on the logistic systems.
If NATO forces entering from the Netherlands are hit by alleged Russian bombing raids or if ports in Northern Europe are destroyed, the alliance will turn its attention to ports in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. NATO could then move troops by land through Slovenia and Croatia to Hungary, which borders Ukraine.
There are similar plans to move forces from Turkish and Greek ports through Bulgaria and Romania to reach the eastern flank of the alliance. Military commanders are also drawing up plans to move troops through ports in the Balkans, as well as through Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Logistics and air defence issue
The French government had previously complained that its tanks were trapped at foreign borders due to bureaucratic procedures when trying to deploy to Romania as part of a new scheme to defend against alleged Russian activity outside Ukraine.
JSEC (Joint Support and Enabling Command) conducted inspections on behalf of NATO over the past five years to identify various routes to deliver troops. As a result of the screening, JSEC found that ports in northern Europe, such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the Baltic states, were deemed especially vulnerable to Russian missile attacks.
Moreover, NATO had only 5 per cent of the necessary air defence assets to cover its eastern flank, Sollfrank stated.
It is clear that huge logistics bases, as we know it from Afghanistan and Iraq, are no longer possible because they will be attacked and destroyed very early on in a conflict situation. With regards to air defence… It’s always scarce. I cannot imagine a situation that you have enough air defence. That is a good example where a military principle applies: ‘If you want to be strong everywhere, you are strong nowhere.’
Russian response
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow had no plans to attack NATO countries. The president called claims that Russia would target NATO “nonsense.” He also called not to create an image of Russia as an enemy, urging not to search for any hidden agenda in the actions of the Russian government.
Putin declared that Moscow might be forced to resort to retaliatory measures. Moscow could begin supplying long-range weapons to NATO adversaries as an “asymmetric response” to NATO-directed Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian territory.
We think that if someone considers it possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory, to create problems for us, why don’t we have the right to supply our weapons of the same class to those regions of the world where strikes will be carried out against sensitive facilities of those countries that are doing this against Russia?
The president did not specify to whom Russia could deliver the missiles. However, he could be referring to Iranian-backed military groups in the Middle East. For instance, Houthis reportedly conduct regular strikes on European and US merchant ships, disrupting shipments in the region.
Moreover, Russia’s ally North Korea routinely conducts missile tests and launches missiles in the direction of South Korea and Japan. According to European intelligence reports, Moscow has allegedly purchased missile systems from Pyongyang. However, Putin also stated that Russia “highly appreciates” that South Korea was not directly supplying arms to Ukraine.
