Suwałki Gap, an area named after Polish town of Suwałki located between Poland and Lithuania, became the most militarily strategic area after Baltic states and Poland had joined the NATO following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Sparsely populated area is the only land corridor (approximately 100 km) between Putin influenced Belarus and Russian exclave of Kaliningrad
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves described the situation as:
The worry is that in a conflict with the West, Russia could sweep into the corridor simultaneously from the east and the west, severing the European Union’s Baltic countries from their allies to the south. “It’s a huge vulnerability because an invasion would cut off Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the rest of NATO”
Although people around Baltics believe in NATO power and protection, it still puts the safety of Eastern frontier in jeopardy which requires much more NATO troops involvement into the region in permanent or semi-permanent basis