Who’s next? Lithuanians prepare for potential Russian attack

Ready for fire! The shooting begins. Paulius Liškauskas has been training for the emergency situation for three years. This emergency situation has never been so close, the 39-year-old believes in a conversation with DW. “I wanted to join the Lithuanian Shooters’ Union in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and started the war against Ukraine. Russian state propaganda has targeted Lithuania ever since. For us, this meant: we can have our turn “.

Accompanied by Paulius Liškauskas, a dozen men and a woman approach a rifle and shoot. In a dark room on the first floor of a small building in the middle of the Marjanpoles pedestrian zone, a screen is hung. We are shown an animation with suspected terrorists, hiding somewhere behind a building. They are the target. All of this could have been a harmless computer game had it not been for the terrifying real sound that screams from the speakers with every shot. As if recalling the real war, which has now erupted in the heart of Europe.

The only woman present in the room is Paulius Liškauskas’s wife. Both wear green olive uniforms of the Lithuanian Shooters Union, a state-backed paramilitary association. The Lithuanian Shooters Union is a kind of additional army. It consists of Lithuanians who regularly train for the use of weapons and who are ready to fight in an emergency.

Lithuania – Demonstration of solidarity with Ukraine in Vilnius

A paramilitary association with a dubious tradition

The association has a long tradition and a controversial reputation. Founded in the early 20th century to fight for Lithuania’s independence, the Shooters’ Union collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. After Lithuania became part of the USSR, the shooters fought as Soviet partisans, some falling victim to the Stalin regime. After the declaration of Lithuania’s independence in the 1990s, the association experienced a renaissance. After the start of the war in Ukraine, amateur shooters are very popular. Paulius Liškauskas is happy to be one of the 14,000 current members.

Especially because Paulius Liškauskas’s family lives in a region that is considered particularly vulnerable in the event of a war against Russia: in the so-called Suwalki Gap. This is the name of a narrow strip of land that connects Lithuania with Poland and that has “stuck” between the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in the northwest and Belarus, an ally of Russia, in the south. It has stalled because it is only 65 kilometers while the raven flies because it is the only land connection of the Baltic states with other NATO partners.

Many here fear that Moscow will close this land connection and feel a deep antipathy to Russia. This antipathy is also felt by Paulius Liškauskasi, who works as a lawyer when he removes the uniform of the Lithuanian Shooters Union. The Lithuanian, however, distinguishes between Russian politics and ordinary people in Russia: “I have Russian clients with whom I continue to keep in touch. “I do not feel personal hatred for them, but for their state and Russian state propaganda.”

Paulius Liškauskas

This hatred must also be felt by Russians traveling by train between Moscow and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad; they then pass through the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. They are certainly not allowed to get off the train, but face bloody scenes of war from their train windows. And with the question of whether they really want to support Russian President Putin.

The Ukraine War: Fear and Rest for Lithuania

For about 45 years, Lithuania and Russia have been part of the same state: the Soviet Union. After the declaration of independence, Lithuania joined NATO in 2004. Tensions with Russia have increased in recent years.

The war in Ukraine is a wake-up call, warns Lithuanian MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas. In an interview with DW, he called for Lithuania to be more armed against possible Russian aggression: “We only have a few years to prepare. That is why we need a greater presence of ‘NATO as a safe haven’.

It is the Ukrainians who today give priority to the Lithuanians, notes political scientist Thomas Janeliūnas from Vilnius University. When the war started, there were people in Lithuania who wanted to leave out of fear, he told DW. But now many see that the Russian army is weaker than previously thought, Janeliūnas points out. The will of Ukrainians, meanwhile, is stronger: “Things like the war in Ukraine are a good lesson for us. They give us time to prepare. Ukrainians give us time. “We have to use this time optimally and prepare.”

For example, with shooting exercises, such as Paulius Liškauskas from the Lithuanian Shooters Union. He would certainly be happy to have more NATO soldiers, but in an emergency he would go to war with his wife himself: “It is difficult to talk about the future. We live in difficult times and no one knows what tomorrow will bring. That is why it is important to live here and now, to take small steps, to strengthen the country with patriotism “./ DW

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