Lithuania has finished putting up the so-called "dragon's teeth" on its border with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, the Lithuanian Defence Ministry said on Saturday. The concrete fortifications, meant to stop incoming tanks, are the latest step in a series of defence measures taken by the Baltic country to deter Russian aggression. "We are starting from the tactical level — specific obstacles on the border — and later we will combine the entire engineering plan into one conceptual system," said Raimundas Vaiksnoras, commander of the Lithuanian army. "This is a precautionary step aimed to ensure more effective defence," the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence stated in a post on X. The three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are members of NATO and border Russia. Lithuania and Latvia also border Belarus, a close ally of Moscow. All three countries, formerly occupied by the Soviet Union, have raised their state of readiness due to the threat of Russian invasion since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. The Lithuanian military is attempting to limit the possibility of using unused roads connecting the country to Russia to reduce the risk of a land invasion. New obstacles have also been erected at unused border crossings with Belarus, including Sumskas, Lavoriski, Raigardas and Latezeris, as well as at the Romaniskes crossing with Kaliningrad. In July, Latvia in turn announced the installation of concrete anti-tank pyramids along the border with Russia. — Euronews
