Lithuania to reinstate compulsory military service
Lithuania says it will reinstate the country’s compulsory military service for young men due to “growing aggression” in Ukraine.
President Dalia Grybauskaite made the announcement on Tuesday after a meeting of military leaders and top government officials.
Vilnius will reinstate mandatory national service for a period of five years starting next September. The compulsory service had been abolished in 2008, four years after Lithuania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The first group drafted will include some 3,000 men aged 19 to 27, who will serve for nine months.
Defense chief General Jonas Vytautas Zukas said a shortage of servicemen endangers the security of the country.
“The geopolitical situation has changed [and] the professional [military] service does not receive as many soldiers as Lithuania needs,” said Zukas, adding, “The lack of soldiers is critical and poses a real threat to national security.”
Lithuania currently has some 15,000 troops, far less than the 39,000 soldiers it had before joining NATO. The country does not have any military aircraft or tanks.
NATO has some 150 soldiers temporarily stationed in Lithuania, which is near Russia. In addition, the military alliance has a dozen fighter pilots deployed to the country who conduct aerial monitoring missions over the Baltic region.
The announcement came a day after Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius warned that the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine could expand to other parts of the region and criticized the West’s weak response to the crisis.
The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April last year to crush pro-Russia forces there.
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