NATO member’s WW3 warning as Russia caught ‘massing troops on border’ | World | News

Russia is massing troops along NATO’s borders preparing for a future potential confrontation with the Western alliance, sparking further fears of World War 3 breaking out.

In its annual threat assessment, Lithuania’s security services said Moscow is expanding military units along NATO’s eastern frontier while giving them combat experience in Ukraine, creating the backbone of a future fighting force. Vladimir Putin is already expanding brigades into divisions, forming new units and developing military infrastructure along NATO’s borders, including in the heavily militarised Kaliningrad region wedged between Western states Poland and Lithuania, says the report. This came as Russian sources this week highlighted a British “spy plane” monitoring the flashpoint Kaliningrad region twice in one day.

Operativnaya Liniya, a pro-Russian military commentary Telegram channel, reported: “For the first time in the history of British military aeronautics, two consecutive flights of the same RC-135W were carried out between 7:30 am and midnight, with a break of a couple of hours for refuelling at Waddington Air Base [in Lincolnshire].”

Russia could be ready for a “wide-scale military conflict” with NATO if wartime sanctions are lifted, said the Lithuanian assessment.

“Russia would likely create not only a 30–50 per cent larger army than it had before the war but also a relatively modern one,” the report said.

“Strategic reserves of weapons and ammunition would be fully restored. Russia would be ready for a conventional military conflict with NATO.

Many of the newly formed units are still being built up and lack personnel and equipment, the report notes, with troops and weapons instead being sent directly to fight in Ukraine.

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But the Kremlin’s long-term goals remain unchanged, the assessment said — tilting the balance of power in Europe in Moscow’s favour and subjugating Ukraine. War could come inside six years.

The report also warns that Russia’s defence industry has been ramped up with help from China, reducing Moscow’s dependence on Western technology and potentially allowing it to rebuild its armed forces more quickly after the war.

Lithuania — an ex-Soviet state which borders both Russia and its close ally Belarus — has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine and among NATO’s strongest advocates for boosting military defences in eastern Europe.

The Suwalki Corridor, which runs along the Polish-Lithuanian border, separating Belarus from Russian Kaliningrad, is portrayed as NATO’s “weakest link”

The alliance is seeking to reinforce this narrow strip through a mix of larger forward deployments, repeated joint exercises, upgraded command structures and improved military mobility infrastructure.

Recent steps include Poland’s East Shield fortification project, Germany’s planned engineering deployment to support it, a stronger brigade-level allied presence in the region, and transport upgrades such as the Via Baltica route to speed reinforcements in a crisis.

The Lithuanian report also refers to a series of mysterious parcel explosions in Europe that officials believe were linked to Russian military intelligence.

European investigators say a string of self-igniting packages sent in 2024 caused fires at logistics hubs in Britain, Germany and Poland.

Authorities have identified 22 suspects in Lithuania and Poland believed to have been acting on behalf of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, according to a joint European investigation.