{"id":8375,"date":"2026-07-20T09:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8375\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T09:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:11:11","slug":"moscows-setbacks-raise-threats-on-natos-eastern-flank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8375\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow\u2019s setbacks raise threats on NATO\u2019s eastern flank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/defence24.com\/author-page\/patryk-jagnieza\" target=\"_self\" class=\"article-author-block__avatar-wrap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/YRN6zjPjOsFTEmIc51TxanW10Bn0BuWa5NqsZOvP.5aon.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\" author=\"Robert Suchy\/Defence24\" caption=\"\" fullscreen=\"https:\/\/cdn.defence24.pl\/2026\/02\/26\/1920xpx\/YRN6zjPjOsFTEmIc51TxanW10Bn0BuWa5NqsZOvP.6isu.jpg\" class=\"img article-author-block__avatar img-avatar\"\/><\/a>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/r5BI5YAgOGvjasJfxEkbKamQ90Y7M9nLCMSyAa2N.dftr.jpg\" alt=\"Rosyjskie bezpilotowce\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\" author=\"mil.ru\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"img image-with-caption__image\"\/><br \/>\n        Photo. mil.ru<\/p>\n<p>Lithuanian Minister of Defence Robertas Kaunas claims that Russia\u2019s setbacks on the Ukrainian front could prompt it to expand the conflict. The Baltic states and Poland are said to be in the crosshairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-module\">\u201cThe war in Ukraine is not proceeding according to Russia\u2019s plans, [\u2026] and today explosions are resounding within Russia itself; there are fuel shortages [\u2026]. Russian society is already questioning the Kremlin regime, asking why this is happening and where the promised victory is,\u201d the Prime Minister said in a Monday interview with the public radio station LRT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-module\">In his view, the Russian side needs an escalation of the conflict, where the Baltic states and Poland are the most likely targets. The minister\u2019s statement is not detached from reality. For weeks, there have been reports of a provocation planned by Russia in Poland or the Baltic states. These reports were confirmed by the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Naus\u0117da. This information is based on intelligence regarding potential Russian attacks on key regional infrastructure, which could be carried out using both conventional and unconventional means. A false flag operation, in which the Russian side might use Ukrainian citizens or Ukrainian equipment (e.g. drones) to carry out aggressive actions, absolutely cannot be ruled out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-module\">In the radio interview, Kaunas pointed out that Lithuania is responding to potential threats by strengthening the protection of transport and energy infrastructure and utilising its services to analyse intelligence information on an ongoing basis and coordinate actions with allies. He also assured that Lithuania\u2019s actions are not intended to provoke Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo. mil.ru Lithuanian Minister of Defence Robertas Kaunas claims that Russia\u2019s setbacks on the Ukrainian front could prompt&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[232,3705,70,197,4733,20,71,222],"class_list":["post-8375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-baltic-states","tag-gitanas-nauseda","tag-lithuania","tag-poland","tag-robertas-kaunas","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}