„Specifically, I was additionally interested today, and our service does not have such information. From the Belarusian side, to this day we do not see an increased threat. Yes, there are certain Russian military facilities, but we certainly do not see new maneuver units that would directly threaten the states of Lithuania, Latvia, or Poland,“ said D. Matulionis on Thursday in the LRT program „Dienos tema“.
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„On the other hand, it does not seem that as of today (Aliaksandras – BNS) Lukashenko would be very interested in directly participating in the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. He is trying somewhat to balance, to restore relations with the West, with the United States. Therefore, neither politically nor practically do we see additional threats from Belarus,“ added the president’s advisor.
He spoke this way after warnings from Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who visited Lithuania on Thursday, about growing military infrastructure in the neighboring country.
As BNS wrote, the opposition leader said she receives information about new military infrastructure being built in Belarus both near the border with Ukraine and at the border with EU countries.
According to S. Tsikhanouskaya, the authoritarian president A. Lukashenko, serving Russian interests, is ready to provide Belarusian territory and infrastructure to the Alliance to attack or intimidate.
In turn, D. Matulionis emphasized that Lithuanian intelligence is monitoring the situation in Belarus and would immediately notice any possible concentration of Russian military forces in this country.
„If an increasing number of Russian troops were observed, and we would actually easily notice that, (…) certain lights would turn on that we would have to monitor and take certain actions both at the national and Alliance level. But at the moment, I would say that we cannot confirm Tsikhanouskaya’s statement,“ he said.
D. Matulionis also said that Lithuania should not seek to restore political relations with the Belarusian regime, but in his opinion, it is necessary to maintain communication channels that would help avoid possible crisis escalation.
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„This does not necessarily have to be at some high political level. Even opponents, even warring countries in history have always had communication channels, so in this regard I do not see a problem,“ said the president’s advisor.
„And as for the need to somehow restore relations with Belarus, the question arises why. That is a rhetorical question. We do not see Belarusian goodwill actions towards us, and Belarus continues to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in one form or another. Therefore, I think it is not yet time to thaw relations with Belarus,“ said D. Matulionis.
Meanwhile, after the meeting with the Belarusian opposition leader, the Speaker of the Seimas Juozas Olekas said that Belarusian railways could be used to transport Russian troops and weapons, but the infrastructure being built is monitored and controlled by Lithuanian services.
BNS wrote that as early as Tuesday, Germany accused Russia of attempting to carry out a hybrid attack last month at the strategic Leipzig airport using a drone with explosives and announced diplomatic countermeasures.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that increasingly brazen Russian attempts to destabilize Europe pose a growing risk of bloodshed.
Fueling concern about Russia’s intentions, CIA Director John Ratcliffe unexpectedly visited Moscow last week, and US media reported that he warned Russia not to attack any NATO country.
Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Robertas Kaunas has said that Moscow is considering attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltic region using Ukrainian drones.
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