German victory Army Group North Northwestern Front Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Air war The Baltic strategic defensive operation (Russian: Прибалтийская стратегическая оборонительная операция, romanized: Pribaltiyskaya strategicheskaya oboronitel'naya operatsiya) encompassed the operations of the Red Army from 22 June to 9 July 1941 conducted over the territories of the occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in response to the offensive launched by the Wehrmacht in Operation Barbarossa.

The operation consisted of three distinct smaller operations The principal Red Army formations of the operation were the Northwestern Front and the Baltic Fleet, with the major ground forces consisting of the 8th (commander General Major Pyotr Sobennikov), 11th (commander Lieutenant General Vasily Morozov) and later 27th Armies.

While the Soviet 8th Army retreated along the Jelgava–Riga–Tartu–Narva–Pskov direction, the Soviet 11th Army sought to initially hold the Kaunas and Vilnius sector of the front, but was forced to retreat along the Daugavpils–Pskov–Novgorod axis.

These withdrawals, although costly in losses of personnel and materiel, avoided major encirclements experienced by the fronts to the south, and succeeded in delaying Army Group North sufficiently to allow Soviet forces time to prepare the defense of Leningrad.

The operation was not a single continuous withdrawal, but was punctuated by short-lived counterattacks, counterstrokes or counteroffensives.