„The goal is to promote distrust in the Lithuanian state and demonstrate that NATO is not united and unable to defend NATO countries and allies,“ Bagočiūnas told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
„In 2025, we observed continued information pressure from Russia and Belarus. As in previous years, the goal was to influence audiences in Lithuania, the West, and Russia and Belarus. We also observed increased information pressure from Belarus, aimed at showing that relations between Lithuania and Belarus are completely irrational, aggressive, and harmful to Lithuania itself,“ the colonel emphasised.
According to him, last year saw a sharp increase in hybrid incidents in Lithuania and across Europe, including violations of airspace and threats to critical infrastructure. According to Bagočiūnas, this was exploited by propagandists.
„The main goal of propaganda and all liars is to break the resistance and will of society to resist. This is the goal of every enemy (...), because a demoralised and broken opponent is very easy prey for our opponent,“ said the colonel.
He also emphasised that countries hostile to Lithuania actively exploited deepfake and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies last year.
„We cannot relax, as we see a significant increase in various information dissemination channels, artificial intelligence, and deepfake technologies are being exploited by the enemy, but we must remember that we must remain vigilant, we must see through the lies, deconstruct them, and inform the public and decision-makers promptly. Only in this way can we ensure that our country remains resilient and able to identify what is true and what is false properly,“ summarised Bagočiūnas.
As announced, on Tuesday, the Strategic Communications Department of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (LAF) presented an overview of the hostile information environment in 2025.
A similar overview was organised last year. At that time, representatives of the LK Strategic Communications Department stated that in 2024, propaganda messages spread by Moscow and Minsk, intimidating citizens with nuclear war, became more active in Lithuania.
Lithuania was also presented in the information space as an insignificant, failed state, yet it was also called a potential aggressor.