Lithuania’s foreign minister sets a red line on Russian sabotage

The Washington Times ^ | July 17, 2026 | Jacob Wirtschafter

[McGruff]

Days after Lithuania said its intelligence services had caught Russia preparing sabotage against the infrastructure that ties the Baltics to Europe, Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys drew a public line.

If those plans are carried out, he said, Vilnius will not treat the results as accidents. “If there is damage, or if there are casualties, it will be treated as an act of aggression, with all the due consequences,” Mr. Budrys said in an interview with The Washington Times at the foreign ministry. That means, he added, “not only the country’s self-defense but the collective defense of the alliance.”

The warning, which President Gitanas Nauseda disclosed this week, points to Russian planning approved, as Mr. Budrys put it, “at the highest levels in Moscow.”

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TOPICS: European Union; Foreign Affairs; Russia; War
KEYWORDS:

[DIRTYSECRET]

They could cut off road access to Kaliningrad without any military intervention. Russia would then have to supply it by ship.

[nathanbedford]

In one sense, the Ukrainians have demonstrated to the world that Russia is a paper tiger. But from another point of view Russia remains the world's number two superpower because of the size of its nuclear arsenal.

As a conventional paper tiger, Russia poses limited threat to its neighbors like Lithuania But because Russia is a nuclear power it enjoys a certain immunity from counterattacks and a certain power to intimidate its neighbors with sabotage that might include satellite destruction, digital attacks or drone attacks and even, after Russia regains strength, conventional land assaults.

Possessed of this advantage, Russia seeks to drive wedges among European states, weaken NATO, and gobble up the odd morsel. Baby states like Lithuania will continue to exist under these circumstances only so Long as European unity prevails.

It is in the United States interests to support that unity, but we have been working against our own interests under the Trump administration because we have weakened our nuclear umbrella.

[Candor7]

Pooty,do not mess with the Lithuanians.

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Lithuanian military history is also a story of women. The most famous among them iscertainly captain Emilia Plater1, who joined the 1830-1831 uprising and successfully led several battles with a group of approximately 500 soldiers against the Russian army(Kazanci, 2018). Unfortunately, most of the military women did not obtain the samerecognition as Plater. They have been discarded and de-individualized by memory politics.This is all the more unfortunate as women have repeatedly played key roles in theLithuanian resistance movements. Women were crucial in the 1918–1920 Wars of Independence against Poland, serving as nurses, organising fundraising activities andproviding meals and clothes to the soldiers (Sereičikas, 2021). Later, they proved to be particularly efficient spies in the war of Polish-Lithuanian intelligence of 1920-1939 (Rezmer, 2020).

During the Second World War and the post-war resistance, women played the role ofmessengers, medical providers (Budryte, 2016), cooks,seamstresses, publishers (Platūkytė, 2020) and, for some of them, directly got engaged as active fighters in the resistancemovement of the “Forest Brothers” (Budryte, 2016). This latter group included around 50,000 members. According to Enrika Kripienė, a historian at the Genocide and ResistanceResearch Centre of Lithuania, 250 of them (0.5%), were women, (Platūkytė, 2020).

A. Historical role of women in Lithuanian military activities.

[marktwain]

Lithuania now has shall issue concealed carry permits as part of its military resistance strategy.

They are one of six European countries which have shall issue permits. Three of those are the Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The other three are the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and, surprisingly, Georgia.

[Candor7]

Sounds like a place one would want residency.

[marktwain]

It shows they have a functional rule of law, unlike New York, California, Illinois, and Maryland.

You do not have the rule of law if the government administration and the courts conspire to deprive citizens of basic, fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

You do not have a rule of law if the bureaucracies conspire to deprive you of what the law says you are entitled to.

[Red6]

The West can’t give Ukraine missiles and drones (or provide critical components for Ukraines drones) that can reach deep into Russia and not expect retaliation.

MOST of the attacks in the West involve the logistical transfer points, where we hand it over to the Ukrainians. As such, you have a lot of Ukrainian owned warehouses going up in flames:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68899130

https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-investigan-incendio-empresa-ucraniana-madrid-posible-sabotaje-prorruso-similar-otro-reino-unido-20240507123623.html

These are likely transfer sites. Where the Ukraine takes possession.

Frankly, the West’s direct hand in hitting Russia is far more obvious, extensive, and we took this first escalatory step.

We are so arrogant and fake virtuous (in our own mind), that we actually believe it is our (((right))) to do these things and “how dare Russia do anything back?”

Punch the other guy in the nose and expecting them not to hit us back! LOL

Attacks across the West, specifically Europe, likely started a few years back 2023. There was a wave of attacks on European defense industry calmly and quietly swept under the rug years ago, AFTER Ukraine began striking deep into Russia using OUR equipment, with factories all of the sudden catching fire.

https://www.politico.eu/article/bulgaria-economy-minister-bogdan-bogdanov-nikolay-denkov-hints-at-russian-attack-on-ammunition-factory/

https://www.focus.de/politik/sabotage-in-berlin-brandstiftung-in-deutscher-waffenfabrik-russische-saboteure-unter-verdacht_id_260076665.html

https://adz.news/artikel/artikel/war-der-brand-in-cugir-ein-gru-sabotageakt

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/20/poland-arrests-nine-suspects-over-alleged-russian-sabotage-plot

More local coverage and ignored by our MSM since it doesn’t fit our narrative.

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Nations providing hardware to Ukraine to strike deep into Russia can expect sabotage on their soil.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65558070

Germany saw a few factories go up in flames, and guess what, they got the message:

https://www.euractiv.com/news/merz-says-ukraine-no-longer-needs-german-taurus-missiles/

Even though Ukraine would love the Taurus and is asking for it, the Germans say it’s no longer needed by Ukraine and won’t be delivered. LOL

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Let’s start from the beginning. Russia is no chump. The West should have respected the promises made and Russia’s sphere of influence, NOT trying to steamroll them on bringing Ukraine into NATO.

Stupid unnecessary war all together.

[marktwain]

Yes, it is a stupid, unnecessary war.

It is also mostly the fault of Russia, which under Vladimir Putin, wants to take back territory it gave up with the fall of the Soviet Union.

I do not blame Russia for this. But Russia is at least equally at fault for claiming they are resisting NATO aggression. Russia wants to make Ukraine part of Russia, again. Ukraine has resisted, far more capably than anyone in Europe or NATO considered possible in the first weeks of the war.

As Ukraine continued to hold its own, it received more and more aid in resisting Russia, because Ukraine showed its resilience and resolve. No one expected this. Russia certainly did not. But Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operations failed him. They assured him Ukraine was a ripe plum to be plucked. Even the Biden Administration gave him a back-handed OK.

But the Ukrainian people did not agree. Ukraine is becoming a real nation, with real mythology and a national identity paid for with blood on the battlefield.

[ansel12]

As Victor Davis Hanson wrote Tuesday
Trump “has given President Zelensky greater targeting leeway and access to more controversial weapons than any previous president.”

[dfwgator]

Ziskey was right “They’re Pussies”

[Mr Radical]

What red line did Ukraine cross when they blew up the pipeline into Germany?