Lithuania starts construction of €1bn military base near Russian border

Lithuania has started work on one of the largest construction projects in the country’s history – a €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) military base its border with Russia’s neighbour and ally Belarus and close to the Russian oblast of Kaliningrad.

An excavator operates at the construction site of the artillery training area of a German army base in Rudninkai, Lithuania (Image: Reuters/Janis Laizans)

The base will accommodate up to 4,000 combat-ready German troops once complete by the end of 2027, in the first permanent foreign deployment for the German military since World War Two.

In addition to accommodating the troops, the base will feature storage and maintenance facilities for tanks and other equipment, as well as shooting ranges of all sizes.

Lithuanian chief of defence Raimundas Vaiksnoras said the project was a “huge investment” for a country with a population of 2.9 million people.

The base will be situated in Rudninkai, near the capital Vilnius and just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Lithuania’s border with Belarus. It will also be around 170 kilometres (105 miles) from Lithuania’s border with Kaliningrad, a Russian oblast sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast.

So far, only around a fifth of contracts for construction on the project have been awarded, according to reports. The remaining contracts are expected to be awarded by the end of the year.

Lithuania has upped its defence spending to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte’s government hiked taxes to support defence needs, such as the base, over the next several years.