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– How is the day of the Belarusian border officials during this period?
– Controlled but tense. More border guards are working, they are cooperating with the shooters and, if necessary, army forces would be used. We all see in the media what is happening here right now. The surveillance of our officers is constantly monitored. Drones are being smuggled in drones and the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border has increased. Everything requires extra attention, strength and a lot of tension.
– Not only drones and refugees are a concern for border guards, but also for Belarusian border guards who are destroying the tracks of those who have crossed the border illegally. Are there many such unusual provocations?
– The situation in which border guards destroy the footprints of migrants is no longer exceptional, this situation has become commonplace. A bigger problem is border sections without video surveillance systems. The neighbor knows these places perfectly. He also knows that only physical patrols are carried out there, and that is taken advantage of.
In those sections, it is still planned to install video systems that would facilitate the work and allow knowing exactly where the state border is violated. An important number. Only 37 percent. the borders with Belarus are controlled by cameras. Even now, modern systems continue to be installed in one of the most problematic locations, the Žagunis border firewall.
Sigismund Kalpock / stop shot
However, as far as is known, this will not guarantee 100% border security. There is still a lack of political will to allocate the amount of money necessary to ensure border security. We raise this funding issue every year, it is a great shame, but this year it was prescient to raise this issue.
– As far as possible, only 37%. Is the area covered with cameras and even two-thirds completely free?
– Lithuania has an external border of the European Union not only with Belarus, but also with the Russian Federation. A lot of money was spent modernizing it. At present, as far as is known, this wall is fully protected by modern technology. But even here, the funds were not very generously distributed.
Both this and previous governments have promised money. The only difference was the deadline, initially promised to get everything needed in 10 years, now that the threat is obvious, the deadline has been shortened to a couple of years.
– How much money is needed to secure the border with Belarus?
– I may be wrong, but the amount is about 70 million. euros. It sounds like a lot, but this amount invested would pay off in a year. That is the amount of smuggling from Belarus to Lithuania during this period.
– The government promises the necessary money next year, won’t it be too late?
– It’s hard to say if it won’t be too late next year, but better later than never. Border security gaps need to be filled.
As we all know, cigarette smuggling is transported across the border to Lithuania by drones, but in autumn we will have the Zapad exercise organized by our neighbors. And here we are no longer sure that the security of our state border will not be tested with the same drones.
The use of such drones for negative purposes in Lithuania is unlimited, here it is only the fruit of fantasy. There may be smuggling of weapons, certain materials or for intelligence purposes.
We have anti-drone systems, but we need more. This would greatly facilitate the work of the border guards. These technologies have blocked the smuggling of seven drones in the last two weeks. These systems work very well, with the right training and skills, border guards do the necessary work correctly.
VIDEO: 15/15: Tensions on the Belarusian border not only due to migrants: lack of labor
– Are the agents working on the border with Lithuania properly armed?
– Border guards need more than cameras or systems to block the drones of a hostile country. We also need weapons, and now the border guards are equipped with Kalashnikov machines that do not meet NATO standards.
They promised us that the weapons would be updated. We have been promised by the Presidency, which has completed its work and started a new one. However, there are no weapons yet, because it is not decided from which “money line” to buy them: the financing of national defense or the country’s budget. How many years this has been promised, it is difficult to remember, it must be calculated.
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