Latvia is urging people to turn their cellars into air-raid shelters amid fears Vladimir Putin could attack the Baltics next.
Mayor of the Latvian capital Riga, Vilnis Kirsis, said: “Ensure your cellars and basements can be used as shelters in case of emergencies.”
Russia and Latvia share a 132 mile (212km) border, with the NATO member and European Union country having once fallen under Soviet rule.
Since Russia launched its mass invasion of Ukraine, Riga has warned of an increased risk of attack. Gints Reinsons, head of Riga’s civil defence commission, told TV24 that 100 shelters will be readied per month until the end of the year.
He said: “The basements of public buildings, schools, retirement homes, hospitals and town halls will be inspected by the authorities who will prepare them to serve as hiding places in the event of an attack.”
It comes amid fresh concerns a Russian victory in Ukraine will lead to Putin’s regime targeting NATO, putting members of the military alliance at risk.
Estonia’s top diplomat, Margus Tsahkna, has said previously that the Baltic states – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – have three to four years to boost their defences ready for Russia to test NATO.
President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, said on Friday (April 26) that a potential aggressor must “see our readiness” as he and his Lithuanian counterpart monitored a joint military drill along their shared border.
Mr Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda met on the last day of the week-long Brave Griffin 24/II military exercise along the Suwalki Gap, a strategically important stretch of land considered a potential flashpoint in case of a standoff between Russia and NATO.
The border, almost 62 miles (100km) long between NATO members Poland and Lithuania, is also a land corridor between Belarus, a Moscow ally, and Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
Mr Duda said: “There is a potential threat, which is why these exercises are going on.”
The drill included 1,500 Lithuanian infantry soldiers, nearly 200 members of Poland’s 15th Mechanized Brigade, as well as US and Portuguese military personnel.
Until recently the land border was considered vulnerable because if Russia were to ever seize the Suwalki Gap, it could leave Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia cut off from Poland and other NATO allies.
However, that view of the corridor has changed since Sweden joined NATO in March as the Baltic Sea is now almost surrounded by NATO countries and any attempts to cut off the corridor would not leave Baltic countries severed.
The Baltic Sea is Russia’s maritime point of access to the city of St Petersburg and Kaliningrad, which is separated from the Russian mainland.
Named after a nearby Polish town, the stretch of border also provides land access between Belarus and Kaliningrad. Russian citizens have a visa waiver arrangement for passing through the area.
