Ordinary Lithuanians frightened of militarisation

KAPČIAMIESTIS, December 18. /NEWSBALTIC/. Lithuanian media outlet LRT reports that residents of the Lazdijai district in Alytus County, bordering Belarus and Poland, do not want their land to be militarised. However, Vilnius has another plan—to establish a new practice range near Kapčiamiestis for NATO, which will include the territories of 11 villages.

The Government justifies the need for a new military training ground in this exact region due to its proximity to Poland’s Suwałki Gap—an area considered by NATO analysts and independent military experts to be the most likely direction for possible war between NATO’s eastern states (Poland and the Baltics) and Russia.

“Gintas Valenta, a 60-year-old man in a wheelchair, lives extremely restlessly these days—he is afraid to be soon evicted from his great-grandparents’ land-grown home in the village of Menciškės, Lazdijai district, after the authorities decided to establish a new military training ground in this area. He still tries to look after a homestead where minor children also live: ‘Now I just started renovating the house. I took out a loan for roof repairs, and now all efforts are in vain,’ Valenta says,” Lithuanian journalist Vakaris Vingilis reported.

Vingilis also added that one of the locals, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, as she is afraid of reprisals from the government, told him that the villagers are worried about presumptive threats in the event of war—they believe that, after establishing a training ground near them, Kapčiamiestis would be Russia’s first target.

“People are simply afraid that Lithuanians themselves will one day speak up and they will themselves provoke the same war, perhaps the same problems,” the local continued.

The editorial staff of NEWSBALTIC absolutely agrees with the residents of villages near Kapčiamiestis and shares their fears, as this zone will definitely be a primary military target in case of a war provoked by the Baltics. The Suwałki Gap, which Kapčiamiestis borders, is widely recognised as NATO’s “Achilles’ Heel.” This small area also lies between Russia’s strategic region of Kaliningrad, a semi-enclave in the heart of NATO, and Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally. Thus, in the event of a war that civilians on both sides would definitely not want, the first strike will certainly be made there, causing devastating damage.