Europe's new iron curtain: Lithuania plans 30-mile-deep 'defence line' along Baltic borders with minefields, booby-trapped bridges and anti-tank dragon's teeth to stop Russia invading

Daily Mail​

11 hours ago

Lithuania has revealed plans to dig a 30-mile-wide ribbon of defences on its borders with Russia and Belarus that will include minefields and bridges set to blow up in case Russia invades.
The plans are part of a Baltic-wide push for more defence, amid increasing aggression from Russia and its allies.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, alongside Poland, have been fortifying their borders, adding obstacles and redoubts to existing fences. All four are also looking for EU funding for these projects.
When complete, having been in the works since early last year, the Baltic defence line is estimated to be more than 940 miles long and will limit Russia's ability to launch attacks from its own territory, Kaliningrad and Belarus.
Lithuania, in particular, began setting up dozens of so-called 'engineering parks' filled with 'counter-mobility' equipment.
These initially included razor wire, concrete roadblocks, Czech Hedgehogs (a type of anti-tank barrier), as well as dragon's teeth (concrete pyramids).
But Lithuania has now said that it is looking to further layer its defences, stretching them wide enough to protect Vilnius, the capital. Lithuania's border with Kaliningrad and Belarus is over 590 miles long.
The new ribbon will be made of of three layers. The first, estimated to be three miles wide, will begin with an anti-tank ditch next to the border fence. This will then be followed by an embankment, strips of dragon's teeth and minefields, and then two layers of strongpoints for defending infantry.
The second and thirds layers will see bridges primed with explosives that can be detonated at will, as well as more lines of infantry.
The Polish-Belarusian country border crossing is seen behind concrete anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire in Polowce-Pieszczatka, Poland on July 21, 2025,
Lithuania is also planning on felling trees along the roads leading to towns and cities, which is expected to assist in destroying Russian armoured vehicles.
The aim of the new project is to slow down land attacks and push enemy forces into easier battlegrounds, not to entirely prevent attacks.
Lithuania currently has 23,000 professional soldiers, along with 104,000 reservists.
It has raised its defence spending to 5.5%, one of the highest rates of any NATO nation.
But war games last year suggested that Lithuanian troops would struggle to fight off an invasion from Russia, until other members of NATO stepped in to deliver reinforcements.
Things would be far worse if Russia seized the Sulwalki gap, the Lithuanian-Poland border that is NATOs land connection to the Baltics.
Lithuania is expected to also implement anti-personnel mines, mines designed for use against people as opposed to vehicles and equipment, after Lithuania pulled out of the Ottowa Convention along with several other NATO members.
However, it has also placed a €10million (£8.6million) order for anti-tank mines on top of prior deals to buy 85,000 of them at the cost of €50million.
It has also replenished its arsenal of 155mm artillery shells, the NATO standard, and has ordered 44 top-of-the-line Leopard 2A8 battle tanks from Germany.
It has also bought €6million worth of Israeli Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles.
Last month, Lithuanian defence minister Dovile Sakaliene said she was prepared to ask NATO to destroy drones that encroached on her nation's airspace from Belarus, after this happened twice in a matter of weeks.
In June, Polish officials said they added minefields to their version of the Baltic defence line, the East Shield.
Karol Frankowski, a Polish army spokesperson, said: 'We are protecting our border. We saw what happened to Ukraine during the Ukrainian war. So we need to be prepared for a potential attack.'
And today, Germany's defence ministry outlined plans to buy more than €350billion (£301billion) worth of arms before the end of 2041.
This included €70.3billion for munitions, €52.5billion for combat vehicles and €36.6billion for naval vessels and equipment.
Lithuania's announcement comes after Russia wounded at least 14 people, including a family with three children, in an overnight attack on Ukraine's northern region of Sumy.
The strike took place at a time of intense efforts by US President Donald Trump to bring an end to the Russian war in Ukraine.
Russia launched 15 drones in an assault on the Okhtyrka area in the early hours of Wednesday, local prosecutors said on the Telegram messaging app.
The children injured in the attack, which struck a residential neighbourhood in the town, were aged 5 months, 4 years and 6 years, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
'Russia continues to manifest its fears through acts of pure terrorism across Ukraine, once again targeting the homes of families and their sleeping children,' she said.
Russia has repeatedly said it does not attack civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Overall, Russia launched a total of 93 drones and two missiles to attack the country overnight, the Ukrainian air force said, adding it downed 62 drones and one missile, and recorded hits at 20 locations.
Ukraine's State Emergency Services reported a 'massive drone strike' on the southern region of Odesa, saying one person was wounded and a large fire erupted at a fuel and energy facility.
Officials of the Izmail district in the Odesa region said port infrastructure in the city was damaged.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine's energy sector this week. One attack sparked fires at an oil depot belonging to Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, while another damaged a gas transport facility in the central region of Poltava.
Russia has regularly attacked oil depots and fuel storage facilities since the first days of the full-scale invasion it launched in February 2022. The Energy Ministry said Ukrainian energy facilities had been attacked 2,900 times since March 2025 alone. (