“There will be no war today,” the Lithuanian Armed Forces reassured on social media, responding to the heightened anxiety in the society.
“We see the need to write this because letters with questions from citizens have been arriving in our mailbox one after the other, family members and friends have been asking soldiers for some time now, and there have been cases where a uniformed soldier has been asked in a store or a petrol station: ‘When will there be a war and what should I do?’,” the Armed Forces wrote on Facebook on Friday.
According to the Armed Forces, two criteria must be fulfilled for an attack on Lithuania to take place: a concentration of forces on the border and a known or perceived intention on the part of the enemy to use them.
“So, the answer to the question ‘Will there be a war in Lithuania today/tomorrow/the day after tomorrow?’ is short enough: today, there is no military equipment concentrated on Lithuania’s borders with hostile states, and therefore the second criterion – the intention to use it – is also not fulfilled, so there will be no war either today or tomorrow,” the post explained.
“How long would it take to concentrate military equipment? Let’s recall the chronology of Ukraine for reference: the invasion began in February 2022, the concentration of military equipment was mentioned as early as spring 2021, in September, the equipment was moved to the Ukrainian borders under the guise of exercises, and in November, the entire Western world clearly identified the threat of an attack with satellite images of Russian military equipment mobilised on the Ukrainian border,” it continued.
The Armed Forces said that the long-term insights on whether Russia is preparing for war with NATO “are not within its competence”, but the “full intelligence picture of what is actually happening at the borders of Lithuanian and beyond” shows that “the situation has not changed since 2022”.
However, the Armed Forces stressed that it is necessary to prepare for war, as it is the duty of the military and every citizen, as well as “the straightest way to peace”.
“And let’s support Ukraine – today, the war is taking place there,” it said.
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