President of Lithuania calls on NATO to deploy Patriot air defense systems in Baltics
In an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė called on NATO to equip submarines with American-made Patriot missile defense systems to strengthen the defense of the Baltic region.
"NATO air defense is insufficient in our regions and should be strengthened. Patriots can be installed in submarines or in our territory,” she stated.
Grybauskaitė emphasizes that Russia, the number one danger to Europe, is waging an unconventional war. "As recently as 2017, they carried out fifteen thousand cyber-attacks against our industrial and energy infrastructure. Their interference in our domestic policy has increased,” the President noted.
Grybauskaitė also expressed concern that Moscow is constructing a nuclear reactor in Belarus just 40 kilometers away from Vilnius. According to her, such steps are “an instrument of threat and geopolitical pressure."
"Those who are far [away] can ignore the danger but we cannot. We remember the cruel and illegal annexation of the Crimea and the invasion of Ukraine,” she stated.
Earlier, in an interview with Spiegel newspaper, Grybauskaitė expressed readiness to defend against a Russian military invasion. She estimated the risk of attack as “significant.” The President noted Russia’s military supremacy however and stressed that Lithuanians are ready to defend their country from any enemy. Grybauskaitė also believes that the West underestimates Russia and is too tolerant of it.