Lithuania’s preparedness for possible threats is adequate for the current situation, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said following the arrival of fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Belarus last week.
“The preparedness of both our institutions and our army is adequate for the situation we see now, and there have been and will be all kinds of statements all the time, the most irresponsible ones, about the use of nuclear weapons, about the Suwalki Corridor, about something else,” she said in an interview with LRT TV on Monday.
“It’s just that it has to be seen against the background, and apparently that’s what we see,” she added.
The independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun, which tracks the movements of armed forces in Belarus, said last week that at least nine organised convoys had already arrived in Belarus bringing in more than 2,000 Wagner mercenaries.
However, the mercenary group has announced on social media that more fighters are planning to come to Belarus.
Meanwhile, Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday he was “keeping” Russian Wagner mercenaries in central Belarus but claimed that they “are asking to go West, ask me for permission to go on a trip to Warsaw, to Rzeszow”.
Earlier on Monday, Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas dismissed such statements as disinformation. He also pointed out that Lithuania was prepared for possible provocations.
“So, let’s stop dancing to the tune of Pu and Lu’s disinformation messages,” the minister said on Facebook referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko.
According to Šimonytė, Lithuanian intelligence is also monitoring the situation in Belarus and exchanging information with its partners.
Wagner started moving to Belarus after its failed rebellion in Russia in June, which Lukashenko helped to end by allowing Russian mercenaries into his country.
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