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© Reuters/INTS KalninsCars wait to enter Lithuania from Russia at a border crossing in Kybartai December 16, 2014.
Lithuania is publishing a manual to advise its citizens on how to survive a war on its soil as concerns grow that Russia's intervention in Ukraine heralds increased assertiveness in its tiny Baltic neighbors.

"Keep a sound mind, don't panic and don't lose clear thinking," the manual explains. "Gunshots just outside your window are not the end of the world."

The manual, which the Defence Ministry will send to libraries next week and also distribute at army events, says Lithuanians should resist foreign occupation with demonstrations and strikes, "or at least doing your job worse than usual".

In the event of invasion, the manual says Lithuanians should organize themselves through Twitter and Facebook and attempt cyber attacks against the enemy.

Lithuania spent much of the last century incorporated in Soviet Union, along with Latvia and Estonia, and upon independence in 1991 quickly sought to join the Western NATO alliance and the European Union.

It is increasingly worried about Russia, not least because of a military drill in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad last month that featured 9,000 soldiers and more than 55 naval vessels.

"The examples of Georgia and Ukraine, which both lost a part of their territory, show us that we cannot rule out a similar kind of situation here, and that we should be ready," Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told Reuters.


Comment: Ukraine did not lose Crimea to any kind of Russian invasion. The Crimean people chose to annex and become part of Russia after Ukraine's democratically elected government was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the U.S. government. In regards to Georgia, the 2008 attacks against innocent civilians in South Ossetia by the Georgian government was in reality a NATO operation, using NATO personnel, equipment, and weapons. It was only after the civilians were attacked did Russia send in their army to protect the citizens and drive back the Georgian army, at which point the mainstream media created the official narrative "Georgia was attacked by Russia" which endures to this day. These two facts makes the Lithuanian government's survival manual all the more ridiculous.


The Lithuanian army and its paramilitary reserve force have seen increased recruitment since the crisis in Ukraine.

"When Russia started its aggression in Ukraine, here in Lithuania our citizens understood that our neighbor is not friendly," Olekas added.

The government is also considering requiring all future buildings to incorporate a bomb shelter on the premises.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine last year, and Western governments say they have overwhelming evidence that it is supplying troops and weaponry to pro-Russian separatists who have seized parts of eastern Ukraine, an accusation that Moscow denies.