Vilnius, Lithuania
This week, the world’s eyes were on the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as it welcomed global leaders for Nato’s 74th summit. The event was a logistical challenge not helped by the fact that Vilnius is only 30km away from the border with Belarus, which is now home to Russian nuclear weapons.
Commercial flights were suspended for the duration of the summit. Air defence systems were stationed. Four-thousand troops, undercover police officers and bomb detection dogs roamed the streets. A Boeing E-3 Sentry – Nato’s eyes in the sky – circled the capital while a 30km radius no-fly zone was imposed.
Shuttles to and from the exhibition centre had paint jobs which read, ‘while you are waiting for this bus, Ukraine is waiting for F-16s’
But the most prominent sight in the capital was the sheer level of support for Ukraine.
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