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Baltic Fleet to set up new division in response to NATO’s build-up near Russian borders

An armored, several multinational battalion tactical groups and other strike units of NATO’s forces have been pulled close to the land borders near the Kaliningrad region

© Vitaly Nevar/TASS

MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. Russia’s Baltic Fleet will be reinforced with a motorized infantry division in response to NATO forces’ build-up near Russian borders in the westernmost Kaliningrad Region, Baltic Fleet Commander Admiral Alexander Nosatov said on Monday.

An armored, several multinational battalion tactical groups and other strike units of NATO’s forces have been pulled close to the land borders of the Russian enclave, the admiral said.

"In response to this threat, the Armed Forces’ command has to take measures in response. As one of such measures, a full-strength motorized infantry division will be formed to make part of the Baltic Fleet’s army corps. The new formation will comprise motor rifle and artillery regiments and a separate tank regiment," the commander said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

A source in the region’s defense circles earlier told TASS that a motor rifle division would be formed in the Kaliningrad Region in 2021 as part of the 11th army corps of the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defense and ground forces stationed there.

Under the Russian Armed Forces’ table of organization and equipment, a motorized infantry division should comprise three motor rifle regiments and a tank regiment. The number of armored and motor rifle battalions in the 11th army corps is expected to rise by several units as a result of its reorganization.

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