"These events are genuine, real. On the other side we have an adversary that has planning capabilities, that has resources, that can act globally and indeed widely as regards continental Europe, and has established targets in Lithuania," Budrys said in an interview to the public broadcaster LRT on Tuesday.
According to him, the incident is just a piece of the puzzle.
"The publicly reported failed operations, some successful, are just a part of the overall picture of what is happening at the moment to the very least in Europe. And Lithuania is one of those countries," he said.
According to Budrys, such planned attacks are often aimed at important locations that might cause public outcry.
"From what we witnessed recently, these are facilities important to us, objects of historical memory, as we saw in the past. Locations that would resonate with the public, cause the felling of terror, such as places of public gathering, shopping centres," he said.
Speaking about the severed undersea communications cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden, which is linked to potential sabotage, the president’s chief adviser on national security called to enhance intelligence capabilities.
"The conclusion is obvious that we must have stronger intelligence and surveillance capabilities in the Baltic Sea, so we could answer faster as to what is happening there, what vessels are moving at the moment. We know that Russia’s ’shadow fleet’ is constantly moving, illegally transporting various cargoes. We must have greater control in our sea," Budrys stated.
It was reported on Tuesday that law enforcement has detained two citizens of Spain on suspicion of attempting to carry out a terrorist act in Šiauliai city in September.
LNK television reported that they were recruited by Russian intelligence services to set fire to a company supporting Ukraine. The fire would have been big as especially flammable materials were stored at the company’s warehouse. However, the two men tried to trick Russian intelligence services by sending images claiming that the arson had taken place when in fact it had not.
According to LNK news, there were more similar attacks in Lithuania that were organised by Russia, but not all of them have been reported to the public yet.