The 17K Civilians Prepping for a Russian Invasion on NATO’s Eastern Border | WSJ

On NATO’s Eastern Flank, low-grade Russian attacks are ramping up. For decades, Lithuania and the Baltic states have issued warnings about the threat of Moscow, long before the Russia invasion of Ukraine. Lithuania, sandwiched between Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Belarus, is particularly vulnerable to threats.

WSJ’s Matthew Luxmoore goes inside Lithuania’s efforts to build defenses and train citizens for war as fears of a full-scale conflict grow.

Chapters:
0:00 The Lithuanian Rifleman’s Brigade
0:43 Hybrid attacks
2:35 Civilian defense
4:58 Lithuania’s readiness
9:11 The Lithuania-Belarus border

Read more about the war preparations on NATO’s eastern frontier here: https://on.wsj.com/4iqQnY3

News Explainers
Some days the high-speed news cycle can bring more questions than answers. WSJ’s news explainers break down the day’s biggest stories into bite-size pieces to help you make sense of the news.

#Lithuania #Russia #WSJ

You can hear the shots being fired. It obviously feels very, very real. There’s people in the window. We don’t want to get shot. So, this may all be an exercise. They may not be firing live rounds, but in these guys’ heads, they really are defending their city from an enemy attack. Getting ready to do that in a possible future scenario. the Russian invasion of Ukraine so close. This could be the path that Russia and its ally Barus will take if it ever invaded Lithuania. The Lithuanian Rifleman’s Brigade is a statebacked paramilitary group gearing up for an enemy invasion. Defending country is the same like defending your right. You have doors, you have windows, you lock normally because you don’t want somebody to come in. Thousands of citizens from all backgrounds are volunteering. We are going to defend our freedom till the last cup of blood. Here on NATO’s eastern flank, destabilizing tactics, also known as hybrid warfare, have already begun. Officials accuse Russia and its ally Bellarus, of using all means at their disposal. Fears of an invasion are growing with the Ukraine war, a harrowing reminder of the threat right on their doorstep. My flight to Vius was diverted back to Helsinki just as it was about to land in the Lithuanian capital because of suspicious balloons spotted over the airport. It really just emphasizes the story that we’ve gone to report. The appearance of weather balloons used for smuggling operations has forced the country to close its airspace several times in just a few days. In the past year, over 500 have crossed into Lithuania from Bellarus. Some Western officials say it has the markings of a Russianbacked disruption campaign. Incidents, including sabotage, arson, and cyber warfare have been escalating across Europe. Lithuania, sandwiched between Russia’s Kiningrad exclave and Bellarus, is particularly vulnerable to threats. Its location has led military analysts to identify it as a possible route for a Russian invasion. For decades, Lithuania and the other Baltic states have issued warnings about the threat from Moscow. Its officials sounded an alarm long before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Now, some Lithuanians, fearing further escalation, are taking war preparations into their own hands. Are you doing checks here? Sorry. Say again. We we are we are journalists. We are doing a documentary about the experience. You should show your license. Okay. The paramilitary group has essentially taken over a town in Lithuania. They’re stopping real traffic, civilians, all part of this exercise. But it feels incredibly real. How are people reacting to you, the civilians? No questions, no answers. I gave you. We’re just driving off now. They let us go. They checked our documents. Really feels like there’s a sense of siege in this place. The paramilitary group, also known as the LRU, is conducting drills to prepare for acts of sabotage on critical infrastructure across the city. We went inside a headquarters for its mission to meet some of its members, volunteers who dedicate their free weekends and evenings to the cause. Thomas is a data scientist for the secondhand clothes marketplace vintage. In 2023 when you joined there was already a huge war taking place in Ukraine. Did this influence your decision at all? Do you think in what way? Well, in that way that I kind of understood that this thing is coming here or it could come right. So that we have to be prepared and I was thinking okay what should I do? Basically there are three options. Yeah. Either run away, collaborate or fight. So I thought okay I will not collaborate and I was thinking whether I want to run or fight and in the end I decided I want to fight because general I love my city I love my country you know of course that it’s an exercise but how does it feel to you first exercises I went it made me more scared actually because you’re like okay oh my god oh my god this is actually I’m training for the actual thing right then I got a little bit more confident in in those in my own skills and now I don’t feel scared at all I even start to feel more like you know better because I know that okay if something comes I know what to do I know you know how I will behave with a population of under 3 million people Lithuania is tiny in comparison to its Russian neighbor of over 140 million its armed forces are made up of approximately 20,000 personnel who would struggle to curb any invasion alone although NATO would be dispatched to help reserves and volunteers would be critical as a first line of defense. The LRU, which has over 17,000 members, is not currently part of the country’s military, but receives state support and funding. In wartime, the group would be fully integrated into the Lithuanian armed forces. How vulnerable is Lithuania? I mean, it’s a very small country. It’s right next to Barus, which is a close Russian ally. Yeah, definitely it is vulnerable. You know we are at the I would say stone thrown the distance you know from en enemy countries basically potential enemy countries that’s why we are preparing you know you cannot just sit on the bench and say that this is preparation is ongoing the Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union but it was occupied for 50 years how does that like compare to the situation today and like you probably lived in Soviet times how do you think about that time you know because the Soviet Union was a fake country Everything was based on fake. You know that you were thinking one thing, you know, and you saying another thing and keep middle finger somewhere hidden in a in in a pocket. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. It regained its independence in 1991 and has made a serious effort for closer ties with the West ever since, joining both the EU and NATO. Redd is a company commander for the paramilitary group. All three generations of her family are fearful of a return to Russian occupation. I was 8 years old. Yes. 80 years old when Soviet Union so collapsed and we gained the independence. I I would never would like to go back. It’s really hard to understand that that system was how she had to grow up. They would wait in lines for hours from their early morning with their parents and waiting. The legs are aching and here they are coming back home with no food. Rea joined the LU before the all-out invasion of Ukraine. It does affect the family time as well, but we do understand it. We do. We were all of us two more sisters. We were all in the union ourselves. It’s the duty of every person the right the duty to know how to help to protect the country. I mean if you send the message that we will protect our country uh whatever it will take I think that the enemy will be fearing to come. Thomas also invited us to his home where he’s been storing equipment in preparation for any crisis. I can show you the whole thing from my training. So it’s raining. I put this if I want to build the tent this becomes my tent. We learned a lot of valuable lessons even from very simple things like for example how to get food, how to move not to be spotted by a drone. Officials from Russia and Bellarus have repeatedly denied any involvement in hybrid attacks on Europe. To understand more about this gray zone between war and peace, we wanted to get closer to the neighbors that Lithuania accuses of hybrid attacks. Right now, we’re on our route to the border with Barus. Western officials say the hybrid tactics such as weaponizing migration, sending unidentified objects, balloons, other things over the border that lead Lithuania and other countries to close their airspaces. All of this stuff is already playing out here right on the edge on NATO’s eastern periphery. In response to these types of incidents, some crossings have been completely shut down. You can see here there’s concrete dragon’s teeth up to my waist or even beyond. And it’s all completely closed. I mean, you can see there’s a duty-free shop here. Everything is completely deserted. There’s no one here. Traveling along the border today, it’s clear these fences are not currently designed to withstand a full-scale enemy attack. But the Lithuanian military plans to construct additional barriers across what it describes as a Baltic defense line in collaboration with Estonia, Latvia, and Poland. The idea is to install layers of obstacles behind the current border in order to channel and delay an enemy advance. Each section will include another type of defensive measure from anti-tank ditches to landmines. The focus now is basically in in specific areas. of first 5 kilometers in depth in order to establish uh any type of obstacle possible to deter our adversary and uh slow down if needed uh their approach into our country. Our soul is our soil and that’s not a question if we are going to defend that one. The construction of the more robust defenses is possibly 5 years away. But with the Russian military preoccupied in Ukraine, the threat of an imminent invasion appears unlikely. For many citizens here, though, there are concerns that the country’s defensive effort could be too little, too late.