Lithuania is installing special engineering structures on border bridges with Russia and Belarus to mount explosives, the country’s armed forces reported. The measures are intended to facilitate the destruction of bridges in the event of an armed conflict and to block the movement of enemy troops.
Lithuanian authorities are installing engineering structures on border bridges with Russia and Belarus for mounting explosives, Lithuanian Radio LRT reported, citing the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
Bridges and roads are selected based on natural obstacles and their strategic importance for Lithuania’s defense system, a military official explained.
In the event of an armed conflict with Russia, destroying border bridges would make it easier to block enemy troop movements. The work is being carried out in accordance with decisions from July 2024 on strengthening Lithuania’s borders. As part of the plan to create a line of border fortifications, several dozen warehouses of anti-tank barriers and other obstacles have been established. Tree plantings are also being conducted to protect key roads, and irrigation channels are being deepened to serve as additional anti-tank ditches. The Lithuanian Armed Forces have always maintained the same position: the threat from Russia remains unchanged over the long term. This is one of the negative aspects that the Lithuanian state has faced for hundreds of years and will likely continue to face, declared Major Gintautas Čiūnis, head of the Media Relations Center of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
Last week, Lithuania officially withdrew from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines. Vilnius, together with Finland, plans to start producing this type of weaponry from 2026, both for its own needs and for Ukraine. Deputy Defense Minister Karolis Aleksa announced that “hundreds of millions of euros” would be allocated for this purpose. At the beginning of December, Defense News reported that Estonia began installing concrete bunkers along the border with Russia in the southeastern part of the country. They constitute the first line of a network of 600 shelters intended to strengthen the EU and NATO’s eastern flank.