With NATO pondering how to appropriately respond to Russia’s mobilization along the Ukrainian border, a small element of possible deterrence arrived this week in Rukla, Lithuania.
Flatbed railcars, loaded with armoured infantry vehicles from Germany, were met by soldiers from the nearby NATO base, who promptly unloaded the noisy, tracked machines and drove them off in a convoy along the narrow, rural roads.
The vehicles and the troops that man them are replacing others returning to Germany, as one rotation ends and another begins — all part of a NATO strategy in the region known as Enhanced Forward Presence, which dates back to 2017.
In Lithuania, Germany is
