Last weekend, two important news items emerged regarding the security of our region. On Friday evening, on the Russian side near the border with Estonia, border guards noticed more active military movements than usual. At the same time, foreign media headlines appeared stating that "Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are seriously preparing for the mass evacuation of citizens due to Russian aggression."
However, the report about mass evacuation plans is "not entirely accurate," explained Guna Gavrilko, director of the Department of Military Public Relations at the Ministry of Defense, in an interview for the program "900 seconds" (TV3).
"Evacuation exercises in the three Baltic states have been ongoing since the first Russian invasion of Ukraine — since 2014. Throughout these years, we have actively practiced scenarios in exercises where the threat comes from Russia and Belarus, and in the event of a real attack, we need to evacuate residents in border areas," Gavrilko explained.
According to her, foreign media are referring to recent exercises in Lithuania, which were indeed larger in scale than previous ones.
"The headline is somewhat sensationalized. These exercises in Lithuania were planned. It is not something sudden," Gavrilko added.
Commenting on the presence of armed Russian military personnel near the border with Estonia, the Ministry of Defense representative noted that this is a specific case.
"We contacted our Estonian colleagues, and they indicated that this is a specific situation. In southeastern Estonia, there is a road that crosses Russian territory. Estonians have the right to travel on it without stopping. Seven armed personnel from Russian services were spotted near this road. To avoid possible incidents, the Estonians closed this section of the road," Gavrilko said.
The ministry also received a message from Estonian colleagues stating that there are no alarming grounds, and the situation is being monitored.
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