Lithuanian troops have stopped assisting the country's border guards in patrolling the border with Belarus. However, rapid response teams have been assigned to support the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) if needed, the Armed Forces have said.
According to the Armed Forces, troops have stopped patrolling the border because a physical barrier has already been installed, and the installation of surveillance systems is nearing completion.
“As the inflows of irregular migrants have gone down significantly lately, and there are no indications that these flows will increase in the near future, the Lithuanian Armed Forces continue to support VSAT by assigning rapid response teams that are on standby at their permanent deployment places and are ready to respond promptly to any emerging incidents,” the Armed Forces told BNS.
Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Force troops have been helping border guards to patrol the border for more than a year since the migrant crisis started in the summer of 2021.
According to Interior Ministry, troops could be reinstalled at the Lithuanian border with Belarus if necessary.
“We could go back to physical presence at the border if the situation changed,” said Deputy Interior Minister Vitalijus Dmitrijevas.
He stressed that the current situation at the border was stable and, with physical security measures in place, permanent patrolling by troops was no longer necessary.
“We have reached an agreement with the Defence Ministry and have chosen a more flexible approach,” Dmitrijevas said.
Due to an influx of irregular migrants, Lithuania declared a state of emergency on its border with Belarus in November 2021.
Lithuanian border guards have prevented more than 19,200 migrants from entering from Belarus since August 3, 2021, when they were granted the right to turn migrants away.
Last year, almost 4,200 migrants crossed into Lithuania from Belarus. Lithuania calls their influx a hybrid attack by the Belarusian regime.
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