One of three Baltic republics, with a total population (alongside Estonia and Latvia) of 6.1m. Lithuania endured decades of Soviet occupation before securing its independence after 1990, and joined NATO and the European Union in 2004. It has land borders with Russia and Belarus.
Lithuania is hardening its border with Belarus, a client state of Russia that hosts Russian troops and nuclear weapons. In 2021 Belarus pushed mostly Middle Eastern migrants towards its neighbours to provoke a border crisis. Lithuania responded by installing surveillance cameras, a high metal fence reinforced with razor wire, and a sand strip raked to detect footprints along the frontier.
By 2025 four of six border crossings with Belarus had been closed, with authorities citing the threat from Belarusian spies, saboteurs, and sanctions-flouting smugglers. Lithuania faces Russian cyber-attacks, sabotage, and "everything short of open war", according to vice-minister of defence Karolis Aleksa.
On May 22nd 2025 Germany inaugurated its 45th Panzer brigade in Vilnius — Germany's first permanent military deployment abroad since the second world war. The armoured brigade will number 5,000 troops by 2027. The decision was taken in 2023 as part of the Zeitenwende in security policy.
In March 2025 Lithuania left the international convention that outlaws cluster munitions, becoming the first signatory to do so. Also in March, the three Baltic republics joined Poland in announcing their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines.
Lithuania is still clearing mines from its own forests that were buried in the first and second world wars. It co-leads a multinational coalition that supplies Ukraine with de-mining equipment. It hopes to contain risks from future minefields by mapping them and using modern mines that self-destruct.
Mr Aleksa says Lithuania did not sign these treaties naively but rather saw a window to join NATO and the EU while Russia was relatively weak. To secure those memberships, it wished to prove it was an "exemplary member" of the West.
Russia's attacks have knocked out more than a third of Ukraine's grid capacity. Lithuania and its Baltic and Polish counterparts have requested that the EU fund half of a €382m ($442m) plan to protect their grids. Litgrid, Lithuania's state-controlled grid operator (led by Rokas Masiulis), will fork out hundreds of millions of euros on its own. The shielding will mostly be interlocking concrete modules—"Lego blocks", says energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas—intended also to shelter repair crews from Russia's signature follow-up strikes. Anti-drone fences and nets are being installed. Litgrid and its counterparts are being advised by Ukrenergo, Ukraine's grid operator. Vilnius is training police to defend energy sites with jammers, air-defence machineguns and portable missiles.
In 2021 Lithuania allowed Taiwan to use the name "Taiwan" in its representative-office name, breaking from other governments' practice of using only "Taipei". China retaliated by effectively erasing Lithuania from its customs system, making it impossible for Lithuanian exporters to send goods there. Over time Lithuania's exports to China gradually recovered, but its fate served as a warning to other countries: few have dared follow suit. See China: doghouse diplomacy.
Lithuania pursues a doctrine of "total defence". The Riflemen's Union, a volunteer paramilitary group, has nearly doubled its ranks since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Many members buy their own kit. Since 2024 the volunteers have run defence courses in every school. If Russia invaded, the number of Riflemen who would carry out joint combat missions with the army would be under 500; most would instead secure the rear and offer technical support. In 2023 investigators discovered that one of Lithuania's Riflemen was working with Belarusian intelligence services; the government wants to tighten vetting of new volunteers. Colonel Linas Idzelis commands the Riflemen's Union. Linas Kojala of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Centre, a think-tank in Vilnius, says the goal is deterrence: "We will fight as a country that has a military, but we will also fight you as a society."
On September 17th 2025 Lithuanian authorities charged 15 people tied to Russian military intelligence with planting explosive parcels on cargo planes, causing fires in Germany, Poland and Britain.
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.