Baltic States

The flow of electricity between the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Russia was officially severed Saturday morning after officials switched off the Soviet-era grid’s transmission lines and prepared to join the rest of Europe on Sunday.

Swedish and Latvian authorities investigate alleged sabotage in the Baltic which Bulgarian operator insists was a simple accident.

Investigation into damage to power cable and data cables found anchor drag mark on seabed, apparently from a Russia-linked vessel.

Russian-linked ‘dark fleet’ ship suspected of cutting cables on Christmas Day may have been also moonlighting as a signals intelligence ship.

NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will seek European Union funding to build a network of bunkers, barriers, distribution lines and military warehouses along their borders with Russia and Belarus, Estonia´s officials said Saturday.

Belarus accuses NATO of provocations that could trigger nucelar apocalypse, and of allegedly launching ‘combat drone’ strikes against Minsk.

Russia will “definitely not stop” with Ukraine if it is allowed to “survive” its war against Ukraine, warned Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Poland and the Baltic states said they will close their borders with Belarus in the event of a military incidents or a migrant push by Minsk.

Those caught driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs seeing their cars shipped straight to Ukraine to help with the war effort.

Russia-bordering Estonia and Latvia plan jointly to acquire German air defense systems for the protection of the two NATO nations’ airspace.

Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe jets with the Baltic Air Command intercepted a group of Russian aircraft, including a spy plane, on Tuesday. 

The three Baltic states condemned comments by China’s envoy to France, who suggested that former Soviet republics aren’t sovereign nations.

Estonian PM Kaja Kallas said her centre-right Reform Party struck a deal to form a coalition government five weeks after the general election.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – In a dusty workshop in northern Lithuania, a dozen men are transforming hundreds of wheel rims into potbelly stoves to warm Ukrainians huddled in trenches and bomb shelters. As the sparks subside, one welder marks the countertop: 36 made that day. Hours later, they’ve reached 60.

VALAKELIAI, Lithuania (AP) – A powerful gas pipeline explosion that prompted the evacuation of a village in northern Lithuania was most likely caused by a technical malfunction, the head of the country’s natural gas transmission system said Saturday.

For Ukrainian and Russian military planners, the clock is ticking, with the approach of winter expected to make fighting more complicated.

The Prime Minister of Estonia has warned that her country faces blackouts if Russia disconnects the three Baltic states — all NATO and EU members — from its grid amid the ongoing Russo-Western sanctions war. 

MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian military said Thursday that it has deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s westernmost Baltic region, a move that comes amid soaring tensions with the West over Moscow’s action in Ukraine.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Estonia decided Thursday to bar people from neighbouring Russia with tourist visas from entering the northernmost Baltic country as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.

(AFP) – Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Latvia on Saturday following tensions between Moscow and the West over the conflict in Ukraine and sweeping European and U.S. sanctions against Russia.

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Lithuania on Monday announced that it will expel Russia’s ambassador and recall its envoy in Moscow in reaction to increasing signs that Russian forces may have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Moscow has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being the most “active participant” in the “race to be anti-Russian”.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Thursday in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan

The Prime Minister of Poland has warned that “Europe and the free world” have to stop Russian president Vladimir Putin, urging the European Union to impose strong sanctions.

Viewed from Paris, London and Washington, the events unfolding in Ukraine may seem like a new Cold War taking shape in Europe.

Russia has mocked Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary for appearing to suggest the Baltic States are located on the Black Sea, suggesting the world needs to be saved from “the stupidity and ignorance of Anglo-Saxon politicians” 

The British government has promised to help Ukraine fortify its Belarusian frontier amid worries Alexander Lukashenko could redirect illegal migrants from Poland and the Baltic States to the Ukrainian border.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Lawmakers from all three Baltic states met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday in a sign of further cooperation between European Union nations and Taiwan.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has told the BBC that it is “absolutely possible” that his forces are helping Middle Eastern migrants break through the eastern borders of the EU and NATO, and that he will not be looking into it.

Finland’s Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said that if it faces the same kind of migrant pressure as Poland and the Baltic States, the country could close its border.

European Union member-state Latvia has banned unvaccinated MPs from voting in its parliament, as well as docking their pay.

Lithuania has said that “at least two dozen” terrorists have crossed the European Union’s eastern border since July 2021, as the Baltic state and neighbouring Poland suffer a border crisis engineered by Belarus.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Estonia’s Parliament on Monday failed to elect a new president to the Baltic country after lawmakers rejected the only candidate in the first round of voting.

Poland and Lithuania, battling border crises reportedly engineered by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus, are under pressure from the United Nations and the Council of Europe to let the migrants in.

An MP has told Breitbart News that her Lithuania will protect the “border of democracy” from a weaponised flow of African and Middle Eastern migrants from Belarus.

So far this year, more than 4,000 asylum-seekers from 40 countries, most of them Iraqi, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania. That’s 50 times more than during all of 2020.