Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has started construction on a new military base that will house over 4,000 German soldiers. The facility will be located just miles from the border shared with Belarus. This significant development marks a “huge investment” for Lithuania, as described by the country’s Defense Minister Raimundas Vaiksnoras, and is expected to cost over $1.1 billion.
Vaiksnoras highlighted that the German deployment represents “deterrence, to push the Russians out,” but it remains unclear where Lithuania intends to push Russia from since Moscow has not invaded the Baltic state. At present, at least two dozen German soldiers are already stationed in Lithuania. The German troop deployment is set to increase to 4,800 troops by 2027 and will be Berlin’s first permanent garrison of soldiers deployed to Lithuania since World War II.
From 1941-1945, Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania. Under Hitler’s control, nearly the entire Jewish population was wiped out in the country. The new deployment will provide a significant military surge to Lithuania, which only has 15,000 active duty soldiers. The base is located just 12 miles from the border with Belarus, and Germany plans to deploy over 100 Leopard Tanks to the facility.
Since the end of the Cold War, Washington has facilitated the expansion of the North Atlantic alliance up to the Russian border. In addition, Brussels has increased military deployments to new members in Eastern Europe. Lithuania officially joined the NATO military alliance in March 2004 alongside Latvia and Estonia, as well as countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
The Kremlin has consistently protested the eastward expansion of the bloc, considering it a threat to Russian security. Russia has been invaded through its European borders multiple times; prior to Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk, the last power that invaded Russia was Nazi Germany.
