{"id":427721,"date":"2025-05-23T11:44:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/23\/germania-schiera-soldati-lituania-russia\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T15:54:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T13:54:00","slug":"germany-starts-deploying-5000-troops-near-lithuanias-border-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/23\/germany-starts-deploying-5000-troops-near-lithuanias-border-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany starts deploying 5,000 troops near Lithuania’s border with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Germany is serious about rearmament<\/strong>. After announcing an unprecedented\u00a0military spending in the history of the Bundesrepublik<\/i>, Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/strong> officially inaugurated the first permanent deployment of German troops abroad<\/strong> since World War II<\/strong>: the 45th brigade<\/strong>, stationed in Lithuania to protect NATO’s eastern border<\/strong> from the imposing Russian\u00a0neighbor.<\/p>\n

The large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022 was a watershed for Berlin. The then-chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/strong> announced a new Zeitenwende<\/i><\/strong> (‘momentous turning point’), putting 100 billion euros<\/strong> on the table to modernise the German army, the Bundeswehr<\/i><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

His successor, Friedrich Merz<\/strong>, set even more ambitious goals: a massive\u00a0500 billion<\/strong>\u00a0<\/i>fund (although not all of it earmarked for defence), overcoming\u00a0the constitutional debt limit<\/a> for military spending, the activation of the safeguard clause<\/strong> of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP)<\/strong> offered by the European Commission as part of the ReArm Europe<\/strong> plan to avoid infringement proceedings. He also declared that he wanted to build “the strongest conventional army in Europe.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, we move from proclamations to the proverbial boots on the ground: 4800 military and 200 civilian personnel<\/strong> will comprise the 45th Armoured Brigade<\/strong> stationed in\u00a0Rudnikai and Rukla. The solemn inauguration<\/strong> occurred yesterday (May 22) in the presence of Merz, his Defence Minister Boris Pistorius<\/strong>, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus\u0117da<\/strong>. The announcement of the establishment of the brigade dates back to 2022 at the request of the Baltic State; the unit was then unofficially activated last April and should reach full operational capability by 2027.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In Lithuania we are taking the defence of NATO\u2019s eastern flank into our own hands:
\nTogether, Lithuanians and Germans show that we are ready to defend Europe\u2019s freedom against any aggressor.
\nGermany stands by its responsibility. Today. Tomorrow. For as long as it takes. pic.twitter.com\/mceeVAj0d7<\/a><\/p>\n

– Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) May 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Bundeskanzler<\/i> assured that Germany is determined “to defend Alliance territory against any aggressor,”<\/strong> stressing that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security.” According to the leader of the CDU, “Russia’s aggressive revisionism”<\/strong> poses serious risks not only for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe.<\/p>\n

It is the first foreign deployment of the Bundeswehr since the post-war period<\/strong>. It is a move filled with symbolic significance far beyond geostrategic considerations, coming just weeks before the NATO summit in The Hague<\/strong>, scheduled for June 24-25. In Merz’s words, the Alliance must “sustainably strengthen European defence capabilities,<\/strong> and our defence industry must expand its own capabilities.”<\/p>\n

Zeitenwende,<\/i> in defence, is not only German, by the way. Vilnius<\/strong> announced it plans to reach the target of 5 percent of GDP in military spending<\/strong> – the new target that the US administration would like to impose at next month’s NATO summit – by 2026<\/strong>, while Berlin aims for 2032<\/strong>. Even neighboring Poland<\/strong> is working <\/a>on a massive\u00a0rearmament, considering, in addition to conventional forces, a modern atomic arsenal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

After all, this corner of Europe especially feels Moscow’s aggressiveness<\/strong>: Estonia<\/strong>, Latvia,<\/strong> and Lithuania<\/strong>, once part of the USSR, are sandwiched between the Russian exclave<\/i> of Kaliningrad<\/strong> (one of the most militarised areas of the Old Continent) and Belarus<\/strong>, de facto<\/i> a satellite state of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berlin’s army — which Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to make “the strongest in Europe” — has stationed its 45th armoured unit in Lithuania to defend NATO’s eastern flank against potential Russian aggression<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":427714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30809],"tags":[30095,29731,29635,31320,27853],"class_list":["post-427721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-security","tag-nato-en-7","tag-defense-and-security-en","tag-friedrich-merz-en","tag-federalarmedforces","tag-lithuania-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427721"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427747,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427721\/revisions\/427747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}