Lithuania has outlined its plan for a 30-mile-deep ribbon of defences along its borders with Russia and Belarus, including minefields and bridges primed for demolition in the event of an invasion.
Alongside Poland, the three Baltic states have begun fortifying their frontiers to deter the Kremlin from considering an attack, supplementing existing metal fences with obstacles and redoubts partially inspired by techniques that the Ukrainians have used to fend off Russian assaults.
When it is complete, the “Baltic defence line” will stretch across large sections of the land perimeter of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in the west to the mouth of the River Narva in the east.
Although critics sometimes disparagingly liken the project to the ill-fated Maginot Line that France laid down along its border with Germany before the Second World War, local commanders and military analysts say the analogy is misplaced.
The intent is not to establish a single physical barrier to stop an invasion but rather to slow down any land-based attack and to “canalise” the enemy force into areas where it is easier to resist.
The Baltic states announced the scheme in January last year, and work started on the first ditches, bunkers and embankments a few months after that.
Last summer, Lithuania began setting up 27 “engineering parks” with stores of “counter-mobility” tools such as razor wire, concrete roadblocks and antitank barriers nicknamed “hedgehogs” (caltrop-like assemblies of crossed metal beams) and “dragon’s teeth” (concrete pyramids).
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However, an update from the Lithuanian defence ministry has sketched out a more ambitious series of layered fortifications that will stretch far enough inland to cover Vilnius, the capital, which is 20 miles from the Belarusian border.
It will take the form of three “echelons”. The first of these, roughly three miles in depth, will start with an anti-tank ditch next to the border fence, followed by an embankment, strips of dragon’s teeth and minefields, and then two layers of strongpoints for defending infantry.
An observation tower on the Russian side of the border between Kaliningrad and Lithuania
SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
Dovile Sakaliene, the defence minister, has previously indicated that it is likely to include anti-personnel mines after Lithuania and several other Nato members on the eastern flank withdrew from the Ottawa convention, which prohibits the weapons.
Further back, in the second and third echelons, bridges will be prepared for demolition, and there will be further lines of infantry positions. There is also a plan to fell trees along the roads leading to towns and cities, presumably to make it easier to destroy any invading Russian armour.
At the same time, Lithuania said it had placed a €10 million order for anti-tank mines, on top of previous deals to buy 85,000 of the mines for a total of €50 million.
It has also replenished its stock of 155mm artillery shells, ordered 44 state-of-the-art Leopard 2A8 battle tanks from Germany, and taken delivery of €6 million worth of Israeli-made Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles.
Dovile Sakaliene, the Lithuanian defence minister
AARON FAVILA/AP
Last month, Sakaliene suggested that she would be prepared to ask Nato’s international air-policing mission in the Baltic states to destroy drones that encroach on her country’s airspace from Belarus after at least two such incidents in the preceding weeks.
Lithuania can field about 23,000 professional soldiers and a further 104,000 reservists. It is modernising its equipment with a defence budget that has risen to 5.5 per cent of national GDP, one of the highest levels in Nato.
Germany is also upgrading its multinational Nato battlegroup stationed at Rukla, about 40 miles northwest of Vilnius, to a full 5,000-strong armoured brigade.
However, war games conducted last year suggested that these forces might struggle to hold their own against a large-scale Russian invasion until the rest of Nato could deliver meaningful reinforcements, particularly if Russia were to seize the Suwalki gap, a section of the Lithuanian-Polish border that is the alliance’s only land bridge to the Baltic states.
This means that the ability to slow and “shape” any Russian offensive through the defence line could be decisive in buying more time.
Poland and the Baltic states are seeking European Union funding for these projects, arguing that they will serve to protect the entire bloc.