Gaming the Suwalki Gap
Last December, WELT collaborated with the German Wargaming Center of the Helmut-Schmidt-University of the German Armed Forces to conduct an all-day war game centered on an October 2026 Russian move into the Baltics without the bedrock promise of immediate U.S. military support.
Under the guise of a humanitarian emergency in isolated Kaliningrad (still occupied former German East Prussia), the 65-mile Suwałki Gap between the Lithuanian borders becomes a fortified Russian superhighway in an operation that could be interpreted as somewhat short of all-out Article 5-invoking war.
The outcome, gamed by a group of German high-ranking former defense bigwigs, is interesting, albeit a bit slanted.
Finland and Sweden have both joined NATO, respectively on 4 April 2023 and 7 March 2024. Why are they not members on the map above, considering the wargame took place way after those dates?
Probably an old graphic. The Gap has been there since 1945.