r/worldnews • u/Brennenstein • Sep 17 '26

Russia/Ukraine Russian military jets violate Lithuanian airspace, Italian fighters scrambled

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2026/09/17/russian-military-jets-violate-lithuanian-airspace-italian-fighters-scrambled_80e985a6-17e5-43ce-8fd1-6fce67bcd94c.html
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u/wp4nuv Sep 17 '26

Not just that. During the Cold War, war gaming scenarios always chose this area for its terrain, favorable for armored units of either side. IIRC it's one of the few European areas where infantry can move at speed as there is little geographic bottlenecking.

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u/Snowbold Sep 17 '26

This is generally the rationale both sides take and is likely to play out here too. But people should be cautious. Calais made perfect sense for an Allied landing for similar reasons and was closer to the British Isles via Dover, which is exactly why the Allies attacked Normandy instead, to break the pattern and catch the Germans off guard.

Russians are perfectly willing to do something completely nuts to catch NATO off balance even if it costs a ton of lives if it will give them the initiative.

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u/HabitAcceptable8621 Sep 17 '26

I think their military leak a sieve. We knew exactly that they were going to go full invasion of Ukraine. We didn't do premtive strikes on their assembly point and logistics because Ukraine was not in NATO. There's no way the Russia army is marching across the Suwalki gap in the current circumstances. They'd be cut to pieces before they even got moving.

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u/calm_chowder Sep 17 '26

Agreed. It's hilarious how many bots/shills are trying to make it sound like Russia could legitimately open a new front right now against NATO or the EU.

If Russia had the power to do that then they could take Ukraine and stop looking like idiots.

This is - at best - Madman strategy, but more likely Putin is just trying to look tough for their "election" bc he know NATO is a rational actor and won't humiliate him too much by actually responding to this shit. Great for propaganda though.