8 April 2026

The Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence on April 8 approved the creation of the Kapciamiestis military training area in Lazdijai district. Defence officials say the site is needed because Lithuania’s armed forces and NATO presence have expanded, and 13 homesteads inside the planned area would be bought out and relocated.

The same committee is also debating two other military range bills today, accelerating decisions on new training areas. Parliament is also considering amendments to the LRT law that would make it easier to dismiss the public broadcaster’s director-general, and journalists are gathering for a 6 p.m. protest in Independence Square. Protest organisers are urging President Gitanas Nauseda to veto the bill and lawmakers to pause the process for broader consultations. Mindaugas Sinkevicius said the Social Democrats’ coalition with Nemuno Ausra damages the party’s reputation, but he sees no alternative majority and will not reopen the coalition deal. Closing arguments also began at Vilnius Regional Court on April 8 in the case against former military chief Valdemaras Rupsys over allegedly unlawful dental implants.

Lithuanian institutions are stepping up scrutiny of foreign artificial intelligence tools, which officials increasingly frame as a security risk. The Seimas chancellery is preparing to ask whether operating-system level restrictions should be applied to parliamentary devices, although no AI-related security incidents have been recorded so far. Border guards detained 15 irregular migrants at the Belarus border. In Svencioneliai, assailants used gas in a violent robbery attempt targeting gold.

Visvaldas Matijošaitis said he will seek another term as Kaunas mayor. The Kapčiamiestis military training ground project moved forward.

Russia launched a mass overnight strike on Ukraine on April 8 using hundreds of drones and multiple missile types, and Ukrainian air defences shot down most of the incoming weapons. Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 12 people were killed, including two children, and residential buildings caught fire in Kyiv.

Russia also hit civilian and port infrastructure in the Odesa region. In the Kerch Strait, strikes destroyed the last ferry used by Russian forces, and explosions in Crimea targeted a key site used by the Russian military. Ukraine’s military said it killed more than 1,000 Russian soldiers in the past 24 hours. Russian outlets said on April 7 that 16 Cameroonian nationals fighting for Russia had been killed in Ukraine. Murmansk governor Andrey Chibis said on April 6 that Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Otroshchenko, head of the Northern Fleet’s air force and air defence, was among the 29 people killed in the An-26 crash over occupied Crimea on March 31.

In an LRT interview, a former Pentagon chief of staff described two attack scenarios against the Baltic states: a thrust through the Suwałki Gap and a move to sever the region from NATO’s land link. NATO’s debate is now centred on where to pre-position ammunition, armour and faster reinforcements. In Vilnius, Economy and Innovation Minister Lukas Savickas said Lithuania had already laid the groundwork to expand drone and artillery production after the European Commission unlocked an extra 150 million euros in loans for EU states building defence industry capacity.

Russia’s treasury lost $60 billion in reserves in March as war spending rose and energy revenues weakened. Eurozone business growth slowed in April to its weakest level in eight months as costs rose and factory demand softened. That adds pressure to Germany’s industrial economy and reinforces expectations that the ECB will consider rate cuts in the coming months. European gas prices also fell sharply as storage levels stayed high after a mild winter.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 112 people and injured 837, according to the ministry. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces hit the Dnipropetrovsk region dozens of times, injuring four people, while concern is growing in Moscow over security for the May 9 Victory Day parade after Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets.

Washington, Tehran and Israel agreed a two-week ceasefire on April 8, and Iran committed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Donald Trump said the United States had met its military goals and was moving to talks on a longer-term settlement after threatening strikes on Iranian energy sites and bridges.

Israel said missiles were still fired from Iran after Trump ordered attacks halted. Fresh U.S.-Iran talks are expected in the coming days, but the Israel-Hezbollah front in Lebanon was left outside the ceasefire deal. Emmanuel Macron called the truce a very good thing and urged efforts to turn it into a durable agreement. Iran’s top security council said Washington had suffered a strategic defeat and that Tehran had tightened its grip around the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 24 hours.

Israel’s military said it hit more than 100 Hezbollah targets in 10 minutes across Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, then followed with another strike in central Beirut. Oil prices fell about 15% after the ceasefire and Hormuz reopening were announced, with the strait carrying roughly a fifth of global oil and gas flows. Traders are now testing whether tankers will actually resume transit through the waterway and whether the two-week truce survives.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles from Wonsan on April 8, and South Korea’s military said they flew about 240 km into eastern waters. Seoul had detected another projectile near the capital region a day earlier that may have failed soon after launch.

The White House said Donald Trump will discuss possible US withdrawal from NATO in a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. At the same time, Iran threatened to block shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a move Washington called entirely unacceptable. In Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed at least 89 people and wounded more than 700.