Lithuania draws up mass evacuation plan

VILNIUS – Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite and representatives of the country's Defense and Transport and Communications Ministries, the National Crisis Management Center and other institutions have discussed the mass evacuation of the population in case of a military scenario, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The meeting agreed on the responsibilities and tasks of the institutions in preparing for the evacuation of the population, and the municipalities are expected to provide specific data on capacities and needs, the ministry said.

In early July, the Interior Ministry briefed the country's municipalities on the evacuation concept and asked them to assess their capacities and needs for its implementation within six weeks. They are expected to provide information on the number of people to be evacuated by category, the evacuation routes, the transport and contracts available, the number of people to be in charge of evacuation, the number of people who could be accommodated on a temporary basis, and the funding gaps.

The ministry says such data would be included into an evacuation plan.

Lithuania is following in the footsteps of Northern European countries, which have separate evacuation plans for peace and wartime.

Lithuania is taking steps to boost its civil protection in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.