Lithuanian intelligence finds no 360,000 Russian soldiers in Belarus
Lithuanian intelligence and specialists from the National Crisis Management Centre have dismissed reports of 360,000 Russian soldiers allegedly deployed in Belarus. This information was recently circulated by journalists from the German publication Welt. According to the Lithuanian side, it “does not correspond to reality”.
«Online information is circulating, published by a foreign media outlet, about supposedly more than 300,000 Russian military personnel deployed in Belarus, ready to attack NATO at any moment. In short, nothing even remotely like that exists in Belarus,» the Lithuanian Armed Forces stated .
They emphasised that, according to their information, the main Russian forces are currently concentrated in Ukraine, and there are none near Lithuania’s borders or the borders of neighbouring NATO countries. Lithuanian military officials labelled such claims as «sensationalist disinformation».
According to the Second Operations and Rescue Department of Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence, Russia currently has deployed only several thousand military personnel in Belarus – comprising non-manoeuvre units. In the opinion of the Lithuanians, Russia currently does not have the capability for a large-scale deployment of troops in Belarus in the near future.
«This blatant disinformation is aimed at intimidating the public and sowing panic,» the National Crisis Management Centre of Lithuania expressed its view on the German publication’s disinformation.
In turn, Professor Tomas Janeliūnas from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS) of Vilnius University made a supposition about the origin of the specific figure of 360,000 Russian soldiers cited by Roderich Kiesewetter, a representative of the German CDU party, whose leader is the current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
According to Janeliūnas, this exact figure appears in reports by German and some other intelligence services about Russia’s future plans. According to some reports, Russia plans to create military corps (the 44th and 14th) near Finland, an additional corps in Kaliningrad, and in Ukraine.
«All of this TOGETHER could amount to these 360,000. But not in Belarus. At best – near or around Belarus. I wrote about these development plans back in the spring. But these are merely plans, and while the war in Ukraine is ongoing, nothing like this is happening in reality,» stated Professor Janeliūnas, calling the German publication’s article «complete nonsense».
Officials in Russia and Belarus have not publicly commented on the German publication, but in Belarusian pro-military social media channels it was immediately branded a fake.
Earlier, Telegraf.news reported that the German Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, announced the dispatch of several dozen military personnel to the EU’s eastern border with Belarus and Russia. They will assist in implementing the ‘Eastern Shield’ defence initiative announced by Poland.