Suwalk corridor

Suvalki corridor ( English Suwalki Gap , Polish. Przesmyk suwalski ; in American military terminology, “SK corridor” ^{[1] [2]} ) is a hypothetical land corridor about 100 kilometers long that could connect the territory of Belarus with the Kaliningrad region of Russia. Currently, the border of Poland with Lithuania passes through this territory.

It is named after the Polish city of Suwalki located on the corridor ^{[3] [4]} .

NATO is considered the most vulnerable part of the external borders of the alliance and the likely target of possible Russian aggression ^[1] , since the capture of the Suvalki corridor would actually cut off the Baltic countries ( Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania ) from other NATO members. According to the alliance’s top military leadership in 2017, the NATO forces will be able to restrain the breakthrough of Russian units along the Suvalki corridor at best for 60 hours ^[5] .

In 2017, the Iron Wolf-2017 exercises were held in Lithuania, during which the military from nine NATO countries prepared for the alleged military operations to hold the Suvalki Corridor ^[6] , to which 5300 troops were involved ^[7] . At the same time, representatives of some NATO countries accused Russia of preparing to capture the Suvalki corridor during the joint Russian-Belarusian West-2017 maneuvers ^[8] .

In September 2018, Polish Minister of Defense Marius Blaszczak announced the formation of the 18th mechanized division near the border with Ukraine and Belarus. It was also decided to restore the 14th Suvalki anti-tank artillery regiment, which was disbanded 8 years ago. The armament of the 16th mechanized division is being modernized due to the arrival of new RT-91 MBTs. Since January 2017, in the city of Rukla of Lithuania and since March 2017 in the cities of O Оisz and Bemovo-Piska Poland, NATO tactical battalion groups are deployed under the auspices of Germany and the USA. In total, more than 4 thousand NATO troops are located in this region. The transport infrastructure of the region is also being modernized in the form of the construction of a highway from Poland to the Baltic states for military purposes ^[9] .