With mines and anti-tank barriers Lithuania builds 50-kilometer-wide anti-Putin strip

Fearing an attack, Lithuania is massively arming itself. The country is building a 50-kilometre-wide defensive line with fences, anti-tank barriers and mines - and is even withdrawing from an international agreement to do so.

Lithuania wants to secure its borders with Russia and Belarus with a massive line of defense. As Focus Online reports, citing the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense, the planned system will extend up to 50 kilometers inland and will consist of several zones.

In the first zone, up to five kilometers behind the border, fences, anti-tank ditches, ramparts and barriers such as "hedgehogs" and "dragon's teeth" are planned. Trenches are to be built behind these. In the second zone up to 20 kilometers, bridges will be prepared for possible demolition and technical parks will be set up for supplies. In the third zone, up to 50 kilometers, there are to be further positions, barriers and rows of trees that can be felled in an emergency.

Use of anti-personnel mines controversial

The Baltic defense line is planned as a joint project with Latvia, Estonia and Poland. The first parts have already been built and the dimensions have now been made public. President Gitanas Nausėda also announced plans to increase defense spending to up to six percent of GDP from 2026.

The use of anti-personnel mines is particularly controversial. In April, Lithuania withdrew from the Ottawa Convention, which has banned such mines since 1999. Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene defended the move, saying that Russia was using "everything to kill innocent people" in Ukraine. It was necessary to take "every possible and impossible step" to protect Lithuania.

The border fortification is seen as a reaction to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the proximity to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.