Photo: migracija.lt
Lithuania has prepared a detailed evacuation plan for Vilnius in the event of a military threat or major crisis, with one of the three main evacuation directions leading toward the Polish border, Polskie Radio reports.
The plan is not an ongoing evacuation order. It is a contingency scenario designed to determine how residents would leave the capital if the security situation deteriorated.
Three evacuation directions
Under the plan, the order and scope of evacuation would depend primarily on the location and scale of the threat.
One of the main routes would lead toward Poland, while the other two would run north toward Panevėžys and Šiauliai and west toward Kaunas and Klaipėda. Residents with their own vehicles would use designated routes, while municipalities would organize transport for people without cars.
The updated plan was presented by Vilnius authorities about a year ago.
“One of the evacuation directions from the capital should be Poland,” said Žygimantas Solovjovas, head of the Civil Defence Department at Vilnius City Municipality.
Evacuation should begin before an attack
Authorities stress that residents should not wait until an attack has already begun to leave Vilnius.
“Residents of Vilnius should not assume that they will leave the city along one of the evacuation routes during shelling,” Solovjovas said. In the event of an immediate attack, people should instead seek shelter.
One of the main purposes of the plan is to ensure that evacuation is a controlled and organized process rather than a spontaneous mass departure that could create severe congestion.
The decision to evacuate all or part of Vilnius could be made by the city’s mayor, while a larger-scale emergency could involve the national government.
Poland prepares for possible transit role
Poland’s Podlaskie Voivodeship has been incorporated into the Baltic states’ broader evacuation planning system.
Local authorities are preparing for the possibility that the region could serve as a transit corridor for people evacuated from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the event of a major security crisis. All local governments in the voivodeship are involved in emergency planning.
Polish authorities describe the preparations as part of standard civil-protection planning rather than a response to an immediate evacuation threat.
The measures are being developed against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine and broader concerns over security along NATO’s eastern flank.
Vilnius is located roughly 30 kilometers from the Belarusian border, making contingency planning particularly important for the Lithuanian capital.
