Builders complete German brigade housing at Rudninkai

Residential blocks for German brigade troops at the Rudninkai military campus are complete, LRT reported. The entire campus is due to be finished by the end of next year.

The headquarters of the 45th Brigade Lithuania will be based in one of the buildings. Eika Construction director Almantas Čebanauskas said his company expects to finish its construction work by the end of this year, with a small amount possibly extending into early next year. Furniture and utility-network work are outside the company’s contract and must be completed by the client and other suppliers before the buildings can be handed over to the German military.

Čebanauskas said hundreds of German soldiers would be using the buildings next year. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas and German Ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann were shown a furnished room designed for a German soldier. Kaunas said the living conditions were better than those provided to Lithuanian soldiers, but noted that the Germans would live there permanently and would not be able to return home at weekends.

Germany has said it does not have enough volunteers to serve in Lithuania, and some soldiers may therefore be ordered to join the brigade. Kaunas said this was a common way of staffing military units. He also said Germany carries out checks on its own soil and that Lithuania communicates concerns about sensitive issues, with the aim of ensuring arriving soldiers understand the threat posed by Russia.

Zimmermann said Germany would honour its commitments despite the country’s changing political situation. Kaunas said Lithuania would also meet its obligations and that construction of the Rudninkai military campus would be completed by the end of next year.