Lithuania has evacuation plans over Russian threat, PM says

Lithuania's prime minister has told the BBC his country has made evacuation plans in the face of threats from Russia, but added they "will not surrender" if attacked.

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius told Newsnight that Lithuanians feel "constantly threatened" by Russia, in part because of drones entering the nation's airspace.

He told Newsnight if his country was attacked, "we will fight back... we will engage". But he said there were plans for a "variety of scenarios" and used an example of getting elderly citizens out of cities "smoothly" and avoiding traffic jams.

Lithuania, a Nato member, shares a land border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"We're thinking about a variety of scenarios, not all of them are being discussed very much publicly," Sinkevičius told the BBC.

"We face concrete threats, not on a daily basis, but we're experiencing them and it's a true reality for us."

Sinkevičius also said the UK needed a "shift in the mindset" in terms of its approach to defence, but noted that Lithuania was "closer to the border and closer to [the] threat".

Last week Nato fighter pilots shot down a drone that entered Lithuania's airspace.

Lithuania has experienced numerous incidents in the past year, which it describes as "hybrid attacks" and blames on neighbouring Belarus, a close Russian ally.

Late on Monday night, flights were disrupted at Lithuania's main airport in the capital Vilnius, because of what the airports operator called a "hybrid attack carried out by Belarus", involving objects that appeared to resemble the shape of balloons.

The president's chief adviser, Deividas Matulionis, said on Tuesday it was unclear whether the objects were balloons.