Lithuania’s capital Vilnius presented Wednesday an evacuation plan in case of war, as the Baltic nation worries Russia could target the former Soviet republic next after its invasion of Ukraine.
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, and has since ramped up defense spending and training.
The three main evacuation routes run west, “as the enemy has historically come from the east”, Vilnius’s Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said at a press conference.
“We do not want to cause panic,” he said. “Our goal is clear: to have a plan, to have coordination between institutions, to know who is responsible for what, and to trust our defense forces… hoping that this plan will never need to be activated.”
The city aims to hold evacuation drills in the autumn.
Vilnius is just 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border with Belarus, which Russia used as a springboard for its Ukraine invasion.
Lithuanian officials fear Moscow could repeat the scenario for any attack on the Baltic country.
In September, Russia and Belarus will hold the Zapad military drills, which in previous iterations drew tens of thousands of troops close to borders with Poland and the Baltic states.
Vilnius authorities have said the city of over 600,000 residents could be fully evacuated within 48 hours.
The evacuation plan is also a response to threats from natural disasters or incidents at the Ostrovets nuclear plant in Belarus.
Lithuanian authorities had previously staged decontamination drills and handed out iodide tablets to Vilnius residents in case of an incident at Ostrovets, a Russian-built facility about 50 kilometres from the capital.
Lithuania says the nuclear plant is unsafe, an allegation denied by Minsk and Moscow.
