Lithuania accused Russia of lying about the rail "blockade" in the Kaliningrad dispute.

According to Ingrida Simonyte, EU sanctions have had a minor impact on a small part of Russian goods.

Source: BBC News

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says Russian accusations of a rail blockade of its territorial outpost in Kaliningrad are untrue. The Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad employs a rail connection to reach Russia via Lithuania for both freight and passengers. Russia promised to retaliate after Lithuania last Saturday blocked the transport of steel and other ferrous metals due to EU sanctions. The measures were denounced by the Kremlin as being unlawful and inappropriate. According to Ms. Simonyte, only a small percentage of Russian freight was impacted, and passengers could still freely cross Lithuanian borders from Russia to Kaliningrad.

Russian talk of a blockade, according to a senior official in Brussels, is false information.

The prime minister declared, "Lithuania is observing the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia for its aggression and war against Ukraine."

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World War Two:

After World War Two, Russia conquered Kaliningrad, and it is now home to almost one million people. EU sanctions on steel were put into effect in March, but a three-month transition time was given to allow for the termination of existing contracts.

The threat of a "severe negative impact on the population of Lithuania" made by the head of the Russian security council, Nikolai Patrushev, was unclear. Retaliation would be both practical and diplomatic, as the foreign ministry in Moscow plainly stated. Kaliningrad will arrange for marine shipments in addition to retaliation, said regional governor Anton Alikhanov. Although officials in Vilnius have stated for months that they are prepared to link through Poland to the West European grid, another option would be to cut off Lithuania from the power network that it shares with Russia, Belarus, and the other Baltic states.

NATO conference in Madrid:

As the most recent in a string of threats used by Russia or Belarus to threaten its neighbors, including attempted cyberattacks on public institutions and utilities, the Lithuanian prime minister told the BBC that it was crucial not to overreact. Estonia urged Russia to stop issuing threats and said Moscow was exercising its muscles before next week's NATO conference in Madrid, where Sweden and Finland want to gain support for joining the Western defence alliance.

Given that Belarus, a neighbour of Russia, had acted as an accomplice by enabling its territory to be used as a staging area for an invasion of Ukraine, the prime minister of Lithuania, a member of both the EU and NATO, said lessons were to be learnt and security had to be put in place.

In reference to a 100-km (62-mile) stretch of land connecting Lithuania and the other two Baltic republics to Poland, she told the BBC's Katya Adler, "We need a substantially higher presence in the region."