What is PATRIOTISM all about?

Patriotism and caring for your country begin with strengthening your own backbone. With the courage to call things by their true names and not being afraid to do what is right. Not to wrap things in cotton wool, not to strive to be soft and fluffy, but to speak the substance. The way my soldiers do, and they send Lithuanian Army this message:

“The first and perhaps most important message for you in Lithuania: a lion should never be disturbed by the opinions of sheep. Neither should wolves.

If a soldier feels himself to be a real soldier, he is not just a person in a uniform. Once a person has put on a uniform, with a coat of arms, he automatically becomes different. The opinions of grey mice should not concern you at all. You must do your job, which is called protection of your land and country, and there should be no room for any foolish jokes about the army. And those who make their 'ha-ha' jokes in the direction of the army, those who complain about their own army - those jokes and complaints will end very quickly, after the first artillery shelling

The army must now look not toward society, but toward the enemy, closely watching what the enemy is doing. WATCH AND PREPARE. Prepare 24/7. And do you know why? Because the enemy never sleeps; the enemy prepares constantly and continuously, because his quantities are what they are.

The time will come, when a soldier's knowledge and skills will be required. What he is being paid for, and he will be looked upon as a defender.

And one more thing. Don't look at Ukraine as a country where 'something just happened’. Pity it. Look at Ukraine as something that is over there, across the border. Don't look at us that way, look at yourselves instead. And always have in your mind: today it is them – Ukraine - and tomorrow it will be us. It is finally time to wake up. We, Ukrainians, made a huge mistake in 2008s when we didn't pay sufficient attention to the events in Georgia, when Abkhazia and South Ossetia were taken from it and six years later, Crimea and Donbas were taken from us.

So, look closer at the enemy, observe what he is doing, watch, listen and... learn! Draw current experience from the Ukrainians. During your army training, don't live in tents on training grounds, instead - dig. Learn to dig deep trenches and bunkers. Learn to roof them, learn to dig yourselves into the earth. In wartime, there will be no life in tents, and even a civilian - yesterday he was a civilian, today he is already called up to fight – is already a soldier!”

While talking, the soldier mentions NATO and the European Union more than once and criticizes the 'talks and meetings policy' of NATO.

“Yes, there are many empty discussions and meetings there, but real work? There is none of it. And then those endless consultations: oh, come on, let's move our Monday's meeting to Friday. And then: oh, guys, let’s move it to the next Monday, 32 of March in 2089.

All of this shows the enemy, opportunities that can be exploited. While you are in session, blabbering, they are doing. While you are coordinating some document, they are already building a new factory for Shahed production. While you are thinking about your one or two gun and ammunition warehouses (storehouses), which the enemy knows perfectly well and would destroy in the first days - there should be a multitude of such warehouses, and they should be known to nobody. Or - logistics, logistics routes! Your border must be maximally closed, maximally protected: trenches, minefields. Our minefields saved us then, when they were coming. The mines greatly destabilized them, threw them off balance, and that helped us enormously.

Lithuania is completely connected with Latvia — you cannot prepare alone, while your neighbor doesn’t prepare, they are your flank. Your borders must simply be iron-hard, at the border the enemy must lose his offensive potential; the border must stop them. The army has its work and its tasks, and that must now be your absolute priority of your whole society, well, the army and the soldiers, because that is a question of your security and your future!”

I thank the Media Support Fund for supporting the post series "War in Ukraine: The Gap Between the Military and Society”