EU to shell out more money to track Russian trains – von der Leyen

Lithuania has already received funds for monitoring of its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, the Commission president has said

The EU intends to intensify its monitoring of trains traveling between mainland Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave through Lithuania, European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen has said.

At a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Monday, von der Leyen called Lithuania a “frontline state” facing “Russia in Kaliningrad” and accused Moscow of applying “geopolitical and economic pressure” on its neighbor.

Lithuania shares a border with Belarus, Russia’s key ally, in the East, and with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave in the West.

”Lithuania has a €357 million EU program that is dedicated for border management and visa policy,” von der Leyen announced, adding that “we have on a regular basis added money to it.”

The bloc’s financial resources have, among other areas, been directed toward “surveillance capacities [for] tracking the trains… [traveling] between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad” as well as the “purchase of a helicopter.”

Brussels has “proposed to triple investment in migration and border management” in the next long-term EU budget and increase military spending fivefold, she noted.

In July, the EC unveiled a long-term €2 trillion ($2.33 trillion) draft budget for 2028-34, with a massive increase in military-related spending. Bloc member states have agreed on allocating €800 billion ($937 billion) until 2030 as part of the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative.

Rail traffic from Kaliningrad to the rest of Russia must pass through Lithuania. Soon after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Vilnius announced that it would block the transit of goods that fall under EU sanctions on its territory. Moscow accused Lithuania of mounting a blockade of Kaliningrad region. The situation was partially resolved, after the rail connection was reopened.

Moscow has dismissed Western claims that it harbors aggressive plans toward EU countries as “nonsense,” and accused officials in Brussels of fearmongering to justify inflated military budgets.

View the full article