During the opening stage of the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s army devastated Russian forces through the use of drones, ambushes, and society-wide mobilization. Lithuania is now aiming to prepare its population to do the same.

Lithuania’s song festival, Dainų šventė, celebrated its 100th anniversary in July this year. It stands as Lithuania’s paramount cultural phenomenon, involving tens of thousands of Lithuanians and several diaspora choirs from around the world. Yet despite sharing similar festivals, the presence of choirs from the other Baltic countries is a rare sight to see.

An old woman blows kisses at the procession from her flat window. She is dressed in national costume and an array of amber beads. Among the crowds lining the streets, other elderly ladies in similar dress sit on benches, too frail to march the three kilometres from Vilnius’s Cathedral Square to Vingis Park, the festival grounds, but keen to be part of the Lithuanian Song Festival parade.

Numerous foreign volunteers are now present in Ukraine, delivering aid or fighting on the frontline against Russia’s invasion. Recent reports suggest that Moscow may be deliberately targeting such groups.

A conversation with Una Bergmane, author of Politics of Uncertainty: The United States, the Baltic Question, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Interviewer: Maciek Makulski

MACIEJ MAKULSKI: How did you arrive at the point when you thought that there is still much to uncover when it comes to our understanding of the processes around the collapse of the Soviet Union and the regaining of independence by the Baltic states?

UNA BERGMANE: I would probably say by accident, since I wanted to write a master's thesis about French-Baltic relations in the 1920s and 30s when the Baltic states were independent before the Soviet occupation. But then I discovered that there was already a doctoral dissertation just defended in Paris on that very topic. So I started then to look at what seemed like the next logical thing – what France did when the Baltic countries wanted to become independent again at the end of the 1980s. What was interesting for me initially was the discrepancy between what I saw in the French archives.

While the results of the EU parliamentary elections in Central and Eastern Europe did not lead to political upheaval as seen in France, it is becoming clear that the far-right representation in Strasbourg will increase from this part of Europe.

General Martin Herem, commander of the Estonian Armed Forces, explains how Estonia is preparing for possible aggression from Russia and why its approach may differ from the other Baltic countries. Interviewer: Rasa Tapinienė, journalist with LRT.

Lithuania’s support for those Belarusians protesting against the Lukashenka regime has become well known in recent years. Despite this, an argument over the centuries-long interactions between the two peoples could possibly threaten this unity.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has caused reverberations in the world of Orthodox Christianity. While the church in Moscow has fully backed the Kremlin’s war, many priests in places such as Lithuania have found adherence to this belief an impossible task.

One of the “Righteous among the Nations” is the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. At the beginning of the Second World War, he saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jewish citizens, among whom were people from present-day Belarus.

Lithuania’s Taiwan pivot became the most high-profile example of the country’s proclaimed values-based foreign policy. Behind the layers of rhetoric, the emerging picture hints at other motives behind the move.

The inability of some NATO Allies in the West to not see the bigger picture in Ukraine is costing lives every day. While states in the region continue to raise the alarm, many of their partners are still frozen with indecision.

With a new law in Lithuania, Belarusian exiles in Vilnius have found themselves facing a new reality – are they no longer welcome?