NATO has turned Vilnius into a fortress...
...aiming to protect U.S. President Joe Biden and other alliance leaders as they meet there next week.
Rustamas Liubajevas is the commander of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service:
"This situation is really very tense because of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. So, it's already on a very, very high level."
Sixteen NATO allies have sent a total of about 1,000 troops to safeguard the July 11-12 summit.
Many are also providing advanced air defense systems which the Baltic states lack.
The Baltic countries - Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia - were once under Moscow's rule.
But they have been part of both NATO and the European Union since 2004.
The countries all spend above 2% of their economies on defence, a larger share than most other NATO allies.
But for the region with total population of about 6 million people, this is not enough to sustain large militaries, invest in their own fighter jets or advanced air defense.
At villages next to the Belarus border, locals, like Edvard Rynkun told Reuters they feel totally safe, despite the Russian ally's offer to accommodate Russia's private Wagner group
and hosting Russian nuclear weapons.
Thousands of Middle Eastern migrants have crossed at the Belarus border in 2021, in an effort Lithuania and the European Union said was orchestrated by Minsk.
Minsk has denied the allegations.
The numbers have since subsided
Border checks on Lithuania's European Union borders with Poland and Latvia were reintroduced for the summit.
The mayor of Vilnius has suggested citizens go on holiday outside the city if they want to avoid disruption, as large parts of central Vilnius will be closed off for the summit.
