European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union (EU) will strengthen supervision of the railway connecting continental Russia with the Kaliningrad region passing through Lithuania, as Russia-Western tensions have not cooled down.
At a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on September 1, European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen called Lithuania a frontline directly facing Russia via Kaliningrad. She accused Russia of applying geopolitical and economic pressure to the Baltic neighbor.
According to Ms. von der Leyen, Lithuania is implementing a €357 million EU-funded program focusing on border management and visa policy. This budget has been supplemented many times, including the section for improving the capacity to monitor and track trains between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad as well as purchasing helicopters.
We have proposed tripling the investment for border and migration management in the upcoming EU long-term budget, and increasing military spending by five, she added.
In July, the EC announced a huge draft budget of 2,000 billion euros ($2.33 trillion) for the 2028-2034 period, including a sharp increase in defense spending. EU member states also agreed to pour in 800 billion euros ($937 billion) by 2030 under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative.
The railway line from Kaliningrad to Russia must pass through Lithuania. Shortly after the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict in 2022, Vilnius declared blocking the transportation of goods subject to EU sanctions, causing Moscow to accuse this of blocking Kaliningrad. After that, the railway connection was partially reopened to reduce stress.
For its part, Russia has repeatedly denied Western accusations that it intends to attack EU countries, calling it completely unreasonable, and saying Brussels is spreading fear to justify its growing military budget.
