Pentagon urges Baltic states to tone down Russia rhetoric, officials say

Pentagon officials have asked several NATO member states, including the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, to tone down their rhetoric about the threat from Russia, sources told Reuters, according to Polish outlets Onet Wiadomości and Interia Fakty. The request came in bilateral meetings and coincides with President Donald Trump's push for a Ukraine peace deal, the Independent reported.

One source told Reuters that American officials had noted European leaders' remarks suggesting Russia was in trouble and resorting to increasingly desperate measures, as well as comments about a slowdown in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Interia Fakty reported. The Pentagon's message to European officials was that some statements about Russia risked undermining the continent's security, the Polish outlet said.

Lithuania's defence ministry said it was unaware of any such US request, the Baltic Times reported in an exclusive.

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, said during a visit to Latvia that Russia posed serious security threats but that there was no need to panic, Latvian outlets Diena and Jauns.lv reported. He said the alliance needed to keep improving its capabilities, drawing on lessons from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and named faster fusion of sensor data across NATO's eastern flank as a top priority.

Separately, Germany's KSK special forces have begun training for a potential conventional war with Russia, moving beyond their traditional focus on hostage rescue and counter-terrorism, Brigadier General Andreas Kuhne told German newspaper Bild, according to the Kyiv Post.