Lithuania seeks army help to guard Kaliningrad border

Lithuania has asked its armed forces to help border guards protect the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region, in a preventive move, Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said Wednesday, LRT reported. He said the situation at the border was calm.

Katelynas said he had asked Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas to assign military forces to support the border guards. The decision followed an incident on the Latvia-Belarus border and an assessment of regional security, including signals that Russia could announce a mobilisation.

Latvia’s National Armed Forces said a group of at least 20 irregular migrants, accompanied by masked people, tried to cross from Belarus earlier this week. The armed smugglers threatened soldiers and urged and pushed the migrants towards Latvia, the forces said.

Several hours later, masked people entered Latvian territory, damaged an electrical distribution panel and stole video cameras. They had returned to Belarus before border guards arrived.

Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service reported no irregular migrants at the country’s border with Belarus in the previous 24 hours. Latvian border guards turned back 21 migrants on Tuesday. Katelynas said earlier Wednesday that such incidents were concerning but Lithuania was prepared to repel them.