President Gitanas Nausėda announced on Sunday that the Lithuanian State Defence Council has agreed to enhance intelligence capabilities to assess the situation in Belarus. This decision comes in response to the Kremlin’s recent statements regarding the relocation of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, to Belarus as part of a deal to ease tensions.
The failed mutiny by Wagner marked a significant challenge to Vladimir Putin’s longstanding rule and presented Russia with its most critical security crisis since Putin assumed power in 1999.
Following the State Defence Council meeting chaired by President Nausėda, he stated, “The council decided that we need to allocate even more intelligence capabilities to assess our eastern border, as well as the political and security aspects of Belarus, while also considering the Kaliningrad region.” The president emphasized the importance of expediting the implementation of a new border cover plan to ensure the efficient and timely support of the Armed Forces to border guards.
President Nausėda expects the plan to be in effect prior to the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, scheduled for July 11-12.
Despite the recent developments in Russia, no significant organizational changes will be made to the general security plan for the summit, as stated by President Nausėda. He highlighted that while NATO and Lithuania will strengthen control and security capabilities in response to certain developments, the overall plan will remain unchanged.
If Prigozhin or any members of the Wagner group were to arrive in Belarus, President Nausėda emphasized the need to further enhance the security of NATO’s eastern borders. He stated, “After the challenges we witnessed yesterday, we should be prepared for various scenarios because we are dealing with a regime that is revealing its vulnerability.” However, the president clarified that he had no confirmed information regarding Prigozhin’s presence in Belarus at that time.
