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Various locations, Lithuania - Along the banks of the Nemunas River, flags look to beryllium a cardinal feature.
On 1 side, successful the sleepy Lithuanian municipality of Panemune, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and European Union flags flutter successful the wind.
On the other, a Russian emblem towers implicit the Russian metropolis of Sovetsk. On a adjacent gathering is an illuminated decorative Z, a awesome utilized to amusement enactment for the Russian military's full-scale penetration of Ukraine, which began successful February 2022.
A solitary fisherman cautiously sails nether the Queen Louise Bridge, which connects Lithuania with the Kaliningrad region, a sliver of Russian territory sandwiched betwixt 2 NATO subordinate states. A Lithuanian emblem flaps astatine the rear of his boat.
Vehicles person been banned from crossing the checkpoint connected the Lithuanian broadside since 2022, and dragon’s teeth - factual pyramidal anti-tank obstacles - person been installed.
The connection is clear: tensions are high, and question crossed the span is not encouraged.
But this was not ever the case.
Titas Paulkstelis, a 28-year-old upwind turbine technician and nonmigratory of Panemune, remembers erstwhile radical lined up connected either side.
“Life present was booming, with radical going backmost and forth,” helium said.
It utilized to beryllium mean to instrumentality a time travel to bargain products that were cheaper connected each respective side, helium added.
The flags of Lithuania and Ukraine alert connected the Queen Louise Bridge [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]Paulkstelis said postulation crossed the span slowed aft Russian-backed separatists invaded eastbound Ukraine and Crimea successful 2014.
Following Russia’s full-scale onslaught successful 2022, the agrarian municipality was thrust into the forefront of geopolitical sabre-rattling.
Walking done his lush plot bursting with autumnal colours, Paulkstelis told Al Jazeera astir antithetic enactment implicit the past year, including a weeks-long jamming of telephone signals, which helium suspects whitethorn person been a Russian effort to trial Lithuania’s quality to respond.
He appeared amused by astir of the activity, calling it “childish”.
An open-air cinema connected the Russian side, intelligibly disposable to the residents of Panemune, has been airing a near-constant watercourse of aged Soviet warfare films since 2022, helium said.
However, astatine times, helium feels unsettled.
Titas Paulkstelis (left) shares a gag with his neighbours, successful Panemune, Lithuania [Nils Adler/Al Jazeera]On respective occasions, helium has heard accelerated gunfire, which helium thinks emerges from subject exercises successful Kaliningrad. One detonation was truthful almighty that the crushed beneath him shook.
In caller weeks, NATO-Russia tensions person exploded, with a fig of NATO countries reporting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) entering their airspace.
On October 2 and 3, Germany's Munich Airport closed its runways for respective hours aft drones were sighted.
Estonia has said Russian MiG-31 combatant jets entered its airspace for 12 minutes.
The implications consciousness scary for immoderate successful Panemune, Paulkstelis said, but determination is simply a consciousness that determination is small they tin bash fixed their precarious location.
The municipality is nestled by Kaliningrad, which is location to nuclear-capable Iskander rocket systems and is besides adjacent to the Suwalki Gap, a constrictive 65-kilometre (40-mile) onshore corridor betwixt Poland and Lithuania that separates Kaliningrad from Belarus and is seen arsenic NATO’s astir susceptible chokepoint.
“If they’re coming, they volition travel for here”, helium said, referring to the Russian military.
He spot from an pome helium had picked from a tree, took a agelong breath, and added successful a calm tone, “But what tin we do?”
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