The Lithuanian Interior Ministry and the State Border Guard Service will deploy reinforcements to the border with Belarus, State Border Guard Service Commander Rustam Liubayev said.

"Together with the Interior Ministry, we are exploring the possible enhancement of our capacities on the border with Belarus, i.e. the deployment of additional personnel," the Lrytas.lt website quoted Liubayev as saying.

"Respective decisions have been made, and we are planning to enlarge our contingent stationed on the border with Belarus shortly," he said.

"Tensions persist on the state border with Belarus and the Russian Federation. The probability of provocations is high, considering that Wagner forces maintain their presence in Belarus. However, we do not observe any particular provocations or extra activity on the border with Belarus and the Russian Federation for now," Liubayev said.

The exercise involving Wagner members, which is taking place near the Lithuanian border, "has a limited scale and does not pose a significant threat to us," he said.

"The measures taken on our border with Belarus are proportionate to the situation. There are plans of deployment, and we are capable of rapidly moving additional forces to respond to the situation on the border," Liubayev said.

"If tensions on the state border escalate, it will be possible to activate the protection plan, by which the border guards will be assisted by the Lithuanian army, the Lithuanian police and other entities," he said.