Of the total, €800 million will be devoted to the purchase of anti-tank mines, following Vilnius’s announcement earlier this year that it will withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning the use, production and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross have criticized the move.
The funds will also finance defensive infrastructure along the 70-kilometer Suwałki Corridor, the strategic land bridge between Kaliningrad and Belarus.
Planned measures include deepening drainage ditches to serve as anti-vehicle obstacles, planting trees along key routes to impede advances, and extending electronic warfare, counter-drone, surveillance and early-warning systems.
Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said the investments are designed to “block and slow down hostile state actions,” reflecting growing regional security concerns amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’s close alignment with Moscow.
Lithuania joins Poland, Finland and other Baltic nations in enhancing border defenses as NATO strengthens its eastern flank.
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Source: IAR, AFP