Nausėda says troops at Kaliningrad border guard against provocations
Thursday 8th October 2026 on 18:45 in
Lithuania
President Gitanas Nausėda says Lithuania’s decision to deploy soldiers to help secure its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region was reached by consensus as a precaution against possible provocations, LRT reported.
“The decision was coordinated with everyone and it is a consensus,” Nausėda told the news portal 15min. “I think the best policy is to prepare in advance, perhaps even to take extra precautions, rather than wave a club after something happens and say: ‘Oh, something didn’t work.’”
The Lithuanian army has assigned about 100 soldiers to assist the State Border Guard Service in protecting the border with Russia from Thursday. The deployment will last two weeks and can be extended.
Nausėda said hybrid operations had intensified recently in European Union and NATO countries. He also pointed to an incident in Latvia this week, when at least 20 irregular migrants, accompanied by masked individuals, tried to cross the Latvia-Belarus border.
“The incident in Latvia showed that we may also face incursions into the country by people acting undercover, possibly officials,” he said. “Formally, this could be described as helping irregular migrants, but who knows what else they might do during their brief time in another country.”
Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas described the army’s deployment as a preventive measure, citing publicly available, non-intelligence information that Russia is planning a mobilisation after its State Duma election. He said the threat level at the border had not increased.
Nausėda also said that even without a mobilisation, Russian residents were leaving for other countries in large numbers. “There may be more spontaneous, or not entirely controlled by Russia, attempts to flee the country,” he said. “Given that we share a substantial border with the Kaliningrad region, we are preparing for that as well.”
The army said preventive cooperation between institutions was routine and helped strengthen border protection and ensure that joint tasks were carried out smoothly. Soldiers will patrol areas around border guard posts alongside State Border Guard Service officers. Mobile patrols, mobile observation posts and military police crews may also be deployed as needed.