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Lithuania and Poland Map Out Emergency Routes as Tensions Mount Near Kaliningrad
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Lithuania and Poland are structuring joint contingency plans to evacuate civilians in the event of potential Russian military aggression, as reported by The Telegraph.
Additionally, Lithuania plans to close its borders to civil servants and individuals subject to military mobilization in the event of war with Russia.
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According to reports regarding the country's contingency plans, this measure aims to prevent government officials and draft-eligible citizens from fleeing if military hostilities break out while authorities manage civilian evacuations across the Suwalki Gap.
Preparations focus on the Suwalki Gap, a strategic 100-kilometer stretch of border connecting Lithuania and Poland while separating Belarus from Russia's Kaliningrad enclave.
To test these measures, approximately 20 Polish personnel have joined local exercises alongside roughly 3,000 Lithuanian emergency workers and 1,000 volunteers, according to The Telegraph.
Concerns stem from Western intelligence assessments regarding potential further military escalation by Moscow, leading officials in Vilnius and Warsaw to establish operational frameworks for a wartime scenario.
The Suwalki Gap remains recognized as one of the most exposed areas along NATO’s eastern flank, according to The Telegraph. Bilateral efforts center on coordinating transit corridors, regional infrastructure, and general logistics.
The overarching framework is designed so that emergency movement routes could also accommodate civilian evacuations from Estonia and Latvia if the security situation demands it.
"Vilnius and Warsaw are also working on a bilateral agreement that should become the basis for implementing these plans," said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Center, according to The Telegraph.
Lithuania has also developed a comprehensive population evacuation plan in the event of a military threat.
As part of those preparations, Poland’s Podlaskie Voivodeship is coordinating arrangements to serve as a transit corridor for residents evacuating from the Baltic states.
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