Poland and Lithuania prepare emergency evacuation plans for one million Baltic residents

Mass evacuation contingency

On Monday, 5 October 2026, Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński met Lithuanian Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas in Suwałki and at the Budzisko-Kalvarija border crossing to coordinate civil defense procedures. Lithuania announced that emergency plans prepare for up to one million people to evacuate into Poland from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in the event of a military attack by Russia. Under the preliminary framework, Poland's Podlaskie Voivodeship would absorb the primary intake of displaced persons crossing the 104-kilometre frontier. Lithuanian authorities are constructing a specialized reception facility in Lazdijai near the border to organize departures. Katelynas described the scope of the corridor following discussions with Polish officials.

This border crossing point, which connects us to Poland, is intended to accommodate around one million refugees, and maybe even more.

Cross-border logistics and exercises

The ministerial meeting followed nationwide civil defense drills in Lithuania that concluded on Saturday, 3 October 2026. Approximately 20 Polish officials participated in the exercises, which evaluated evacuation logistics, emergency infrastructure, and border passage capacity. The testing focused on the Suwałki Corridor, the land strip between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus that connects the Baltic nations to the rest of NATO territory. Kierwiński stated that Polish agencies will now update their national evacuation protocols based on findings from the Lithuanian drills. Tasks involving alternative border crossings and reception point staffing have been allocated to specific regional units.

As far as cross-border evacuation plans, infrastructure issues, alternative border crossings in emergency situations, and reception points are concerned, these tasks are assigned to individual units and we are starting intensive work in this area.

Border controls and regional security

The ministers also reviewed existing controls along the Polish-Lithuanian frontier, which Poland reinstated in July 2025 across 13 designated locations to restrict irregular migration. Polish authorities have extended these checks, alongside controls on the German border, by six months until 30 March 2027. Both ministers noted that processing at the border has improved compared to the multi-kilometre queues recorded during the summer. Polish border guards currently conduct selective inspections based on statistical profiling rather than stopping every vehicle. While Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski previously assessed that Russian armed forces currently lack the capacity for a large-scale offensive against NATO territory because of commitments in Ukraine, officials maintained that civil protection preparations must address potential hybrid threats.

Bilateral defense alignment

Both governments stated that regional defense planning requires continuous coordination between Warsaw and the Baltic capitals to counter Russian actions and hybrid threats. Katelynas emphasized that Lithuania and Poland intend to maintain unified operational policies on civil protection and cross-border management.

Poland and Lithuania are like brothers, like sisters who support each other and will continue to support each other.

Polish officials affirmed that temporary border measures will stay in force until the migration and security factors justifying them subside, while maintaining open channels for emergency evacuation planning.