Germany is sending tanks and soldiers to Lithuania to strengthen the eastern side of NATO, while Finland says she is preparing “worse”, stating that the possibility of a possible, future, Russian invasion is considered real.
The German chancellor Friedrich Merz and the Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius went personally to Vilnius to participate in the first ceremonial appeal of the Panzer 45 brigade, whose transfer to Lithuania has been started and will be completed in 2027, when 4,800 soldiers will be sent in addition to several heavy vehicles. It will be the first brigade of tanks permanently deployed abroad by the Second World War.
Germany wants to build the most powerful army in Europe
“Russia, in its current form, is a threat to all of us. It is against this threat that we are protecting ourselves, and this is why we are here today”, Merz has thundered in Vilnius together with the Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausea.
“The aggressive revisionism of Russia threatens not only the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine, but also our common safety in Europe”, continued the chancellor ensuring that “together with our partners, we are determined to defend the territory of the alliance from any aggression”, because “the safety of our Baltic allies is also our security”
Berlin assumes new responsibilities
With the United States of Donald Trump who have clearly affirmed that for them the protection of Europe is no longer a priority, Germany has committed itself to playing a greater role in the defense of the continent. The new conservative Christian chancellor has promised to transform the army of the nation, the Bundeswehrin the strongest in Europe, promising billions of investments.
The decision to deploy an entire brigade in Lithuania was taken as part of the renewal of NATO defense after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 and after months of pressure by the government of the first -line Baltic nation, stuck between the Russian Exclave of Kaliningrad and the Belarus of Alexander Lukashenko, the main ally of Vladimir Putin.
In the Panzer 45 brigade, two battalions of combat troops from the German states of Bavaria and the North Rhine-Westphalia will be deployed. A third battalion will instead be a NATO multinational unit as part of the Forward Forward Forward Forward. Another battalion was already in Lithuania, under the German command, but with rotation staff from several other nations.
The deployment
About 400 German soldiers are currently present on the spot, which the German authorities hope to bring to 500 by the end of the year. These soldiers have already started the first training and exercise activities on the ground, which will be further intensified in the coming months.
In February 2026 then, the NATO multinational force in Lithuania will be subordinated to the Panzer 45 brigade, bringing the number of unit to 1,800 units. By the summer of 2026, Berlin aims to have almost 2 thousand soldiers on the field, and then achieved the goal of almost 5 thousand in 2027.
For his part, little Lithuania, a nation of about three million inhabitants, is bringing the expense for the defense to 5.25 percent of the GDP to strengthen its army and to host the German brigade. The Baltic nation estimates that it can spend about 1 billion euros to build military and training infrastructures for German forces.
Finland is prepared
And large maneuvers are also underway in Finland, the EU nation with the longest border with Russia, about 1,340 kilometers. Helsinki claims to expect that Russia, once the war in Ukraine is finished, further strengthens its presence along the common frontier, after learning that Moscow has strengthened its military bases in the area.
Satellite images, published by the New York Times, seem to show an expansion of military infrastructures near the Finnish border, including files, military vehicles, renovations of fighting jet shelters and the construction of a previously unused helicopter base.
The major general Sami Normi, head of the Finnish defense strategy, said that the armed forces follow Moscow’s maneuvers “very closely” and that their task, as part of the born alliance, is to “prepare for the worst”, while specifying that at the moment there would be “no immediate military threat towards Finland or NATO from this direction”.
Adhesion to NATO
“The structures are changing and we are witnessing moderate preparations when it comes to building infrastructures near our borders, which means that, once the war in Ukraine is hoped, they will begin to bring the forces that have fought in Ukraine, especially those of Earth,” said Normi.
Finland enters NATO, Moscow’s threat: “More troops and weapons on the border”
And this development was not clearly unexpected, given that Finland became part of NATO at record speed in 2023 after the invasion of Ukraine, which infuriated Russia.