Lithuania will restore compulsory military service for young men as tensions in Ukraine continue to worry the small Baltic nation, the government said Tuesday.
After a meeting of military leaders and top government officials, President Dalia Grybauskaite said the measure was necessary because of “growing aggression” in Ukraine.
Military officials said Lithuania will reinstate national service for five years starting in September, when it will enlist some 3,000 men, ages 19 to 27. They will serve for nine months.
The country has some 15,000 troops – down from nearly 39,000 it had before joining the alliance in 2004 – and has no military aircraft or tanks.
Lithuania, like its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, was occupied for five decades by the Soviet Union before regaining independence in 1991.
Last month, the Defense Ministry published a booklet advising citizens how to react in case of war, prompted by what Defense Minister Juozas Olekas called “Russia’s aggression against its neighbors, presently in Ukraine.”
Source : Associated Press
