During Monday’s conference entitled Baltic Defense in Vilnius, the head of the Lithuanian army, General Raimundas Vaikšnoras, appealed to his colleagues from the Baltic countries to prepare well and use the time remaining before the next Russian aggression.
“The most important thing we can learn from Ukraine is to use the time we have to strengthen and expand the defense lines of the Baltic countries,” said Vaikšnoras, according to the website of the weekly Focus.
The experience of Ukrainians should be used for this. Defense should focus on attacks from the air and strengthening industry. “The greatest danger comes from the sky,” said Estonian Armed Forces Chief Merilo. He recalled not only the use of drones in Ukraine, but also Russian unmanned machines, which violate the airspace of NATO countries. “We must take such measures to prevent the destruction of critical infrastructure, because Russia will not stop its aggression,” said Merilo.
Estonians, who are “very close to Russia, understand it better than many others,” Merilo emphasized during a meeting of the commanders-in-chief of all three Baltic NATO member states. “Russia will surprise us one day”, and therefore the Baltic countries and NATO must prepare for the “worst possible scenario”. “We are already in conflict with Russia. We are already at war with it,” concluded the Estonian general.
The experience gained by the Ukrainians since the beginning of the Russian invasion is of great value to NATO, said General Kaspars Pudāns, the Latvian commander of the armed forces. According to him, Western Europe should not forget that Russia “is learning from the fights in Ukraine and has been preparing for them for a long time with exercises.”
