- The mayor of Riga, capital of Latvia, warned the nation to be prepared
- He said Latvians should be prepared to take shelter in their basements.
- Latvia feared to top Putin’s list of next targets
Latvian officials have warned the country’s citizens to turn their basements into bomb shelters, amid fears that Vladimir Putin will set his sights on the Baltic States if we win his battle against Ukraine.
Vilnis Kirsis, mayor of Riga, capital of Lativa, warned his compatriots to be prepared to take shelter in their basements.
“We appeal to everyone during the big cleanup, but also afterwards, so that their cellars and cellars can be used as shelter in case of emergency,” he said.
Latvia, along with neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, are feared to top Putin’s priority list if his invasion of Ukraine is successful.
Nations are working to strengthen their defenses, and Riga’s civil defense commission has begun preparing shelters in public buildings across the city.
Gints Reinsons, head of the commission, said the city would prepare 100 shelters each month until the end of the year.
Vilnis Kirsis (pictured), the mayor of Riga, Lativa’s capital, warned his compatriots to prepare to take shelter in their basements.
Latvia, along with neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, are feared to top Putin’s priority list if his invasion of Ukraine is successful.
Nations are working to strengthen their defenses, and Riga’s civil defense commission has begun preparing shelters in public buildings across the city.
‘The basements of public buildings, schools, nursing homes, hospitals and town halls will be inspected by authorities who will prepare them to serve as hiding places in the event of an attack,’ he told local media.
The three Baltic states, which are part of the NATO defense bloc, agreed to establish their own defense line on their borders with Russia and Belarus, which has allied itself with Russia, as Putin’s forces show increasing aggression in the region. .
Each of them agreed to develop “anti-mobility defense facilities” on their eastern borders, and the new measures were called the Baltic Defense Line.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown that, in addition to equipment, ammunition and manpower, we also need physical defensive structures on the border from the first meter to protect Estonia,” Hanno Pevkur, Defense Minister of Estonia, said at the time. Estonia.
Latvia agreed to invest 303 million euros over the next five years to strengthen its borders.
It will excavate dozens of existing roads near the border, create anti-tank ditches along them and place minefields and “dragon’s teeth” blocks to prevent tanks from advancing.
Last month, Lithuania pledged to spend at least 3% of its GDP on defense from 2025, and the motion received support from two-thirds of the national parliament.
It spent 2.8% of GDP on defense in 2023 and is expected to spend the same this year.
Lithuania will partly use the extra money to prepare to permanently host 5,000 German troops from 2027, in a sign of greater military cooperation between the allies on the continent.