Lithuania Considers Border Closure with Russia

Lithuanian Minister of the Interior Agne Bilotaite has admitted the possibility of closing the border with the Russian Federation. 

This is reported by the Lithuanian edition of LRT. 

"Today we had a meeting with the head of the State Border Guard Service, and we discussed with the whole team not only the closure of the border with Belarus, but also other options, including the closure of the border with the Russian Federation, because there may be various threats, and we must be prepared," the head of the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

At the same time, the minister emphasized that there are currently no precise plans to close the Russian border in parallel with the Belarusian one. 

"At this stage, I have to say that we have no real threats, but we see that there are certain risks, that there may be various provocations," emphasized Bilotaite.

Earlier, Lithuania temporarily closed the border crossing points "Tveriach" and "Shumsk" to prevent potential threats from the Russian Wagner private military group. This group had been relocated to Belarus following a failed coup attempt in Russia.

In response to these developments, Bilotaitė stressed that Lithuania is prepared to react to potential provocations from Russian mercenaries. She highlighted the recent update of the Border Protection Plan, a collaborative effort between the State Border Guard Service and the military to address different levels of threats.

In fact, joint exercises between the two agencies are scheduled for August 25th to work through various scenarios. The first scenario will involve dealing with threats of illegal migration, while the second will focus on responding to a military hybrid attack, which Bilotaitė mentioned is also a potential threat.

Recently, Polish Minister of Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, announced the deployment of an additional military group named "Rengaw" on the border with Belarus in response to increasing provocations and threats from its neighbor.

"The task of the soldiers will be to train the Polish Army here, in the field, in the province of Podlaskie Voivodeship and to form a reserve in case the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border deteriorates. We are taking effective and adequate measures to deter the aggressor," said Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak.

He also expressed no doubts about the joint intentions of Minsk and Moscow to destabilize the situation in Poland. As part of Operation Gryf, Poland announced its plan to involve an additional 4,000 troops for border security.