Lithuania approves new counter-mobility belt on Belarus and Russia borders

Lithuania’s Cabinet on Wednesday revised the plan for installing counter-mobility engineering measures, approving a new protective belt along the borders with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region, LRT reported.

The plan calls for a 20-metre-wide belt extending inland from the border patrol path. In operational areas identified by the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the belt will be 150 metres wide from the edge of the patrol path into the country.

“A concrete plan has been drawn up showing what it should look like within ranges of five, 20 and 50 kilometres, what fortifications are needed and what decisions must be taken,” Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told reporters earlier on Wednesday.

Counter-mobility engineering equipment parks at locations identified by the armed forces are to be established by the end of 2028. An earlier government decision had set a deadline of April 1, 2025.

The Defence Ministry said the deadline was being extended because the number of military counter-mobility equipment parks was increasing from 27 to 50. The state-owned company LTG Infra has been instructed to provide facilities for storing the equipment.

The deadline for installing reserve obstacles on sections of national roads and at bridge approaches has also been extended to the end of 2028. On bridges, engineering structures will be prepared for attaching explosives.

Plans for belts of trees have been replaced with plans to create marshes, with the work expected to be completed by the end of 2030. The Defence Ministry said the measure would be effective because it could be implemented quickly.

“Once the hydrological regime is restored, within several years the area will become difficult for heavy machinery to cross without the use of complex engineering equipment,” the ministry said.

The plan to build a network of drainage ditches and streams for defence purposes in Marijampolė Municipality has also been abandoned. The ministry said the most suitable locations for such measures were in the Vilkaviškis and Šakiai districts.

The Defence Ministry estimates that the changes could require an additional 50 million euros from the State Defence Fund for implementing military counter-mobility measures between 2026 and 2030.

The government adopted its decision on implementing counter-mobility measures in July 2024. Parks being established near the borders with Russia and Belarus store “dragon’s teeth”, portable anti-tank obstacles known as “hedgehogs”, “Spanish horses”, concrete road barriers, concertina wire, road blocks and shipping containers.

Conservative-led governments began creating the counter-mobility parks in 2023, drawing on experience from the war in Ukraine that showed such measures could effectively stop, redirect and divide enemy forces.

In August 2025, the Defence Ministry said it had moved from developing individual engineering capabilities to creating an integrated defence line consisting of three echelons, with measures planned within three, 20 and 50 kilometres of Lithuania’s external border.