The representative of the police department, Revita Janavičiūtė, said in “Delfi” that in order to avoid provocations and prevent possible cases of vandalism, the police officers of the country’s police will carry out increased patrols near the soldiers’ cemeteries.
Supervision of public order will be strengthened in public spaces. Monuments, squares, bridges and other objects will be additionally monitored. The situation regarding the display of prohibited characters will be monitored.
In Vilnius, despite the fact that monuments to Soviet soldiers have been toppled, visitors usually go to the Antakalnis cemetery with flowers on that day. Carrying flowers is not prohibited, but the police will be more vigilant in order to ensure public order and seriousness.
“Every year Vilnius district VPK police officers are working at the Antakalnis cemetery on May 9, ensuring public order and seriousness. This year is no exception. The police forces (both uniformed and non-uniformed officers) will patrol and record possible violations, monitor the participants who have arrived to avoid possible provocations, and prevent administrative offenses due to the display of prohibited symbols,” said a police spokeswoman.
The Vilnius City Municipality also currently has no indication of planned meetings to commemorate Victory Day.
“We have not received requests to issue a permit for the meeting either. If we receive information about a planned gathering without a permit, we would pass the information on to the police,” said Gabrielius Grubinskas, the representative of the municipality.
In Klaipėda, the place where people brought flowers and gathered on May 9 was usually the Sculpture Park. A few years ago, Soviet monuments were also dismantled there.
“There will be officers on duty, like every day, who will also pass by that day and check those places where people could possibly vote on May 9. Offering flowers or meeting is definitely not prohibited, it is important that those meetings are peaceful and do not violate public order,” said Andromeda Grauslienė, the representative of the Chief Police Commissariat of Klaipėda County.
According to the representative, the officials of the Public Order Service of Klaipėda County Chief Commissariat have not yet received any reports or requests for permission to organize any events or pickets. Officials monitoring the social space have not yet noticed any larger gatherings being organized that day.
Kaunas is calm
Kaunas is also calm for now. There were no special disturbances in this city on May 9.
Odeta Vaitkevičienė, the representative of the city police, said that so far they have no data about the fact that something exceptional could happen this year.
The State Security Department (VSD) warned that provocations cannot be ruled out as May 9 approaches
“Recently, entities related to the Kremlin regime have been actively conducting psychological-informational operations against Lithuania and other Baltic states, which include kinetic actions, when violations of various types of legal acts are purposefully committed.
The Department of State Security (VSD) draws attention to the fact that these operations are characterized by aggressiveness in order to influence the public, intimidate them, cause panic and disrupt the work of state institutions,” according to a statement published by the State Security Department on Facebook.
Lithuanian intelligence points out that information-psychological attack campaigns are usually based on events that are current in the attacked countries at the time, and socially important topics and significant historical dates are used to create narratives.
“Monuments dedicated to anti-Soviet resistance last year in the Baltic States were deliberately desecrated on May 9. on the eve of the so-called “Victory Day” in Russia. According to intelligence, in the near future, the probability of similar attacks or provocations against various objects in Lithuania remains high,” the post states.
VSD once again draws attention to the fact that hostile services seek to recruit residents of Lithuania and other Baltic countries in various ways, whom they could later use to carry out such provocations or attacks. Increasingly, social networks are used for this purpose, where advertisements constantly appear announcing the search for persons who agree to spy for a certain fee, for example, to photograph strategically important infrastructure or military objects and collect data on individuals, to carry out acts of sabotage or vandalism.
If you see advertisements on social networks that offer financial rewards for vandalism and violations of other legal acts in Lithuania, we urge you to immediately report it to the VSD.
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