Lithuania Initiates Drastic Changes On Border With Belarus

Security is being strengthened.

Within two years, the staff of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service is planned to be expanded by 450 new guards on the border with Belarus. Commander of the State Border Guard Service Rustamas Liubajevas made a statement at a meeting of the National Defence Committee in the Sejm, according to BNS.

“The total number of additional officers over two years will be about 450 people. They will be sent to guard the border with Belarus,” he said. “We want to strengthen border security.”

Additional officers will be recruited in 2024-2025.

“We’ve estimated our staffing capabilities. Sure, it will be difficult to organize training and fill positions in one year. That's why we scheduled it for two years. We will start next year, upon approval of the budget, and finish next year,” the commander explained.

According to him, the recruitment of so many officers seems significant, since the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service currently has 4,300 positions, which include officers and civilian employees.

He noted that before joining the service, new officers must undergo a three-month induction course.

“Our educational facility is capable of training such a number of officers, in addition, we have the opportunity to organize awareness training so that people with higher education can take a short awareness training within three months and start serving on the border. We can organize this training quite flexibly,” he said.

According to the commander, there has been no shortage of people willing to become border guards in recent years. He said the average net paycheck of a border guard officer is €1,006 this year, while next year it will amount €1,050.

Lyubaev called the department's budget for next year a record one. It is expected to amount to 135 million euros, including more than 91 million euros for wages. This year, 78.5 million euros were allocated for these purposes. The draft budget plans for the acquisition of property, which is estimated at approximately 27 million euros.

“The provision of military-standard gear is being improved. Next year we plan to implement it mainly thanks to EU funds. This will allow us to make significant progress in equipping our officers and reach military standards,” noted the head of the Service.

According to Liubajevas, the introduction of a military standard, that is, the re-equipment of border guards according to NATO standards, is well underway: last year new weapons were purchased worth €3.5 million, and €7 million were allocated for this year.

“The issue of rearmament of our troops has now been completely resolved,” the commander said.

By 2022, most Border Security Service personnel were equipped with Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles. Last year, border guards received about 2.500 G-36 assault rifles. This year it is planned to purchase more than a thousand more.

Lithuanian border guards prevented 21,500 migrants from illegally entering the country from Belarus for more than two years. Some of them tried to cross the border several times.