Lithuania's new interior minister has defended giving border guards the right to use firearms against irregular migrants, arguing that officers cannot be expected to protect the country's border without the means to protect themselves, and the state, if the situation demands it.
Martynas Katelynas took over as interior minister this week in the newly formed government of Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius. He has previously spoken about the use of lethal force to stop illegal border crossings – remarks he says have been taken out of context.
He stressed that he was referring only to exceptional cases where there is a direct threat to the life of border guards, other people, or state security.
"If we're asking officers to defend the state, we need to give them the means to do that, and to protect their own lives if necessary. During the migrant crisis, some of those crossing may have been economic migrants - but who can say that among them, during a hybrid attack, there couldn't also be so-called 'little green men'?" he said, using a term that refers to unmarked Russian military personnel, that suddenly appeared during the 2014 annexation of Crimea in Ukraine.
"If we want our state border to be secure, we need to give border guards the ability to do that," he added, referencing the use of firearms.
