“If we needed to change posture, we could do it rapidly.” But that doesn’t take our eye off what we need to do every day,” Major General Matthew Van Wagenen told reporters. “We’re confident we know what’s going on, and right now we see no changes. For the moment, though, NATO sees no imminent threat coming from Belarus. Germany signaled last week that it would be prepared to base soldiers there if requested. Lithuania wants to have a permanent NATO presence on its territory. Vilnius lies around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Belarus border. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that neighboring countries would face a heightened danger if the Wagner Group deploys its “serial killers” just over their border. “We will continue to look at them as a serious threat, in the maritime, and in the air especially, and in space, they are still very, very, capable, let alone of course in nuclear.”Ī revolt by Wagner mercenaries in Russia late last month raised deep security concerns in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland after a deal was reached for their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to be allowed to take refuge in Belarus. “But we are convinced that the Russians are going to reconstitute,” he said. “In the land domain, I don’t think they have a lot of forces available to do anything to anyone else.”

I think that is a sign that they are very, very busy,” he said. They are not for seeking a conflict with NATO. “What we see in general is that the Russians are careful around NATO.

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