There is no direct military threat to Lithuania at the moment, the country’s armed forces commander General Valdemaras Rupšys said in comments on the foreign minister’s warnings about prospects of Russia attacking NATO’s eastern flank members.
“Our intelligence analysts make the following prospective assessments: current threats, medium-term threats and long-term threats. Looking at their assessment, there’s certainly no immediate threat that a military conflict or an invasion of our country could occur,” Rupšys told the LRT TV programme Dienas Tema (Topic of the Day) on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the medium term, which covers a period five to ten years from now, much will depend on the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Rupšys said.
“Then there is a bigger perspective. Our assessment is that we really think Russia will continue to be a threat to us in the long term. But everything will depend on us. We need to prepare for that conflict in a calm, cool way. Whether it happens or not will depend on us,” the armed forces chief said.
He also said that Russia is not ready to attack NATO and that even “unpredictable Russia, at times unpredictable Putin surely knows that NATO is a nuclear alliance”.
“They have simply judged Ukraine to be a country that would not resist – for the lack of either will or capacity. With NATO it is a different matter. NATO has the appropriate weapons, still has them, no matter how disarmed we say we are. Just look at the Scandinavian countries, they have more than 140 fifth-generation fighters or aircraft. Russia certainly knows that, it appreciates that,” Rupšys noted.
This week, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has publicly said several times that Lithuania and the Baltic states may be attacked by Russia. The foreign minister also insisted that Lithuania should make “strategic decisions” to beef up its security.
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