The Baltic as a ‘battlespace’: When diplomacy and Special Operations Forces work together
This opinion article analyzes the ORKAN 26 exercise, organized by Poland during its presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). The exercise involved ten CBSS member states, the EU, EMSA, and NATO in a five-hour tabletop exercise using a hybrid-threat scenario for the first time in CBSS history. The scenario focused on Russia's 'shadow fleet' of 21 vessels threatening critical Baltic infrastructure (cables, pipelines, LNG terminals) and a staged ferry seizure. The exercise used a fully automated system delivering over 230 injects with asymmetric information distribution. On the second day, Polish Special Operations Forces (FORMOZA, GROM units) conducted a dynamic boarding operation on a passenger ferry in Gdynia, supported by helicopters, F-16s, and Navy vessels, completed in 15 minutes. The article argues the Baltic remains a 'battlespace' with legislative and procedural gaps, and that ORKAN 26 served as a diplomatic instrument to strengthen regional counter-hybrid cooperation.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection