By AFP | 2025-04-25

VILNIUS -- Lithuania's capital presented Wednesday (April 23) an evacuation plan in case of war, as the Baltic nation worries Russia could target the former Soviet republic next after its invasion of Ukraine.

Lithuania, a NATO and European Union member, has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Moscow's 2022 invasion and has since ramped up defense spending and training.

The three main evacuation routes run west, "as the enemy has historically come from the east," Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said at a press conference.

"We do not want to cause panic," he said. "Our goal is clear: to have a plan, to have coordination between institutions, to know who is responsible for what, and to trust our defense forces... hoping that this plan will never need to be activated."

The city aims to hold evacuation drills in the autumn.

Vilnius is just 30km from the border with Belarus, which Russia used as a springboard for its Ukraine invasion.

Lithuanian officials fear Moscow could repeat the scenario for any attack on the Baltic country.

In September, Russia and Belarus will hold the Zapad military drills, which in previous iterations drew tens of thousands of troops close to borders with Poland and the Baltic states.

Vilnius authorities have said the city of more than 600,000 residents could be fully evacuated within 48 hours.

The evacuation plan is also a response to threats from natural disasters or incidents at the Ostrovets nuclear plant in Belarus.

Lithuanian authorities had previously staged decontamination drills and handed out iodide tablets to Vilnius residents in case of an incident at Ostrovets, a Russian-built facility about 50km from the capital.

Lithuania says the nuclear plant is unsafe, an allegation denied by Minsk and Moscow.

Operations against Belarusian exiles

Meanwhile, Lithuania's intelligence service accused Belarus and Russia on Wednesday of attempting to organize attacks against Belarusians in Vilnius.

The State Security Department (VSD) said the goal of the alleged operation had been to cause conflicts between Lithuanians and the tens of thousands of Belarusians in the Baltic state.

Many Belarusians, who include opposition figures and activists, moved there as Minsk clamped down on dissent after a 2020 presidential election that rights groups said was fraudulent.

"Russian and Belarusian intelligence services have been conducting ... an operation since 2023 aimed at fomenting ethnic tensions between Lithuanian society and the newly-arrived Belarusian diaspora to make them feel unsafe in the country," the VSD said in a statement.

It accused Minsk and Moscow of recruiting offenders to organize and undertake attacks on Belarusian exiles in exchange for cryptocurrency payments.

It said the assaults were prevented but did not specify how.

The VSD also accused the two countries of recruiting vandals to spray anti-Belarusian and anti-Lithuanian graffiti in Vilnius.

It said a series of vandalism acts targeting Belarusian businesses and cultural centers had taken place since last year.

The intelligence service claimed Belarus and Russia primarily recruited members of the Russian-speaking Lithuanian community on Telegram, a secure messaging app.

European officials have accused Russia of orchestrating a hybrid war against Western countries supporting Ukraine since Moscow invaded the country in February 2022.

The term "hybrid" is commonly used to describe attacks that do not use conventional military tactics, such as sabotaging infrastructure or launching cyberattacks.

In March, Lithuania arrested two Ukrainians for attempting to set fire to an IKEA warehouse in Vilnius -- an incident it blamed on Russian intelligence.

"Lithuania's intelligence services warn that the work of Russian and Belarusian secret services in Lithuania remain intensive," the VSD said.