Lithuania must be prepared for various scenarios, prime minister’s advisor says

Lithuania must be ready for various scenarios due to the aggressive and unpredictable neighbor on its border, the advisor to Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė has said, as reported by ELTA.

Ignas Dobrovolskas, the advisor, stated that responsible institutions continuously assess risks and, if necessary, strengthen the protection of the country’s most critical objects. He described this as responsible preventive work aimed at ensuring the security of Lithuania’s critical infrastructure.

The Interior Ministry and the State Security Department (VST) have taken additional measures to reinforce the protection of key critical infrastructure objects and expanded the scope of measures to ensure the resilience of critical infrastructure, following reports that Russia may be planning provocations against objects in the Baltic states.

Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas confirmed that services currently rely on “general nature information” about potential threats, which is visible to everyone in the public space. According to him, the military readiness level has not been increased, but he did not rule out that, if necessary, soldiers could be deployed to infrastructure sites. Kaunas noted that the protection of bridges, gas supply systems, and communication nodes will be strengthened.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces have confirmed that soldiers on standby in the Operational Forces of the Peacekeeping Operations have started assisting the VST, thereby ensuring the protection of some critical infrastructure objects.

ELTA recalled that Russia has recently spread unfounded claims that the Baltic states allow their airspace or territory to be used by other countries for actions against Russia. Lithuanian state leaders have rejected these Kremlin statements.

Earlier, in light of the recent unmanned aerial vehicle flights recorded in the Baltic region, President Gitanas Nausėda stated that military maneuvers by third countries against neighboring states, using Lithuanian territory, cannot be tolerated.