Although Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year, Lithuanian citizens are still travelling to Kaliningrad. The Russian exclave can only be reached on foot through Lithuania’s Panemunė. Last year, the border checkpoint was crossed 80,000 times.
Jadvyga Vanda, a woman from Lithuania’s second city Kaunas, has dual Lithuanian and Russian citizenship and travels to Kaliningrad once a month to collect her pension.
“I lived in Moscow for 45 years. I have lived in Lithuania since 2010. My bank card does not work here. When the card was working, I always received money on my card, and there were no issues,” she says.
Soon, we meet the family of Denis crossing the Queen Louise Bridge, which connects Lithuania to Russia’s Kaliningrad.
“Home is both Lithuania and Kaliningrad,” the man says, adding that he is “half” Lithuanian.
Denis admits to crossing the border often.
“If you could go by car, it would be easier because it’s difficult when you have a child,” he shares.
The bridge has been closed to car traffic since April 28, 2022, when the Russians closed it, seemingly for repairs. Only pedestrians can now cross the bridge.
On average, 200 people a day cross the Panemunė border checkpoint. A little more than half of them come to Lithuania, and the rest go to Kaliningrad, says Raimondas Sauspreikšis, the checkpoint commander.
“There are persons from post-Soviet countries, and the nature of their arrivals is varied: there are seamen going to ships, a large number of persons transiting through Lithuanian territory to other countries,” he explains.
According to him, however, the most common reason why Lithuanians still go to Kaliningrad is to visit relatives, graves of relatives, or friends.
Galina also travels from Klaipėda to Kaliningrad’s Sovetsk once or twice a month.
“I go to visit relatives. We’ll have some coffee, I’ll help an elderly woman to tidy up, and then I’ll go home,” she says.
In the past, food and other goods also used to cross the border but now sanctions have severely restricted their transportation.
“I only buy sweets, biscuits, anything that is cheaper than here in Klaipėda,” says Galina.
Latvians and Estonians also visit relatives in Kaliningrad, crossing via Panemunė.
“We become a parking lot, and there are cars that have been there for years. People also come from Russia to buy cars in Lithuania that are cheaper, maybe better. They declare their residency in Pagėgiai Eldership, they buy cars, and they cancel their residency,” says Irena Kentrienė, Elder of Pagėgiai, which also includes Panemunė.
Residents with dual citizenship are also trying to make a profit. Conflict situations arise over child benefits.
“When people come from Russia, they demand child benefits because their declared place of residence is in our eldership. But because we are small, we know all our residents, and if we know that these people don’t really live in Pagėgiai, don’t really live in Lithuania, we don’t pay the benefits,” Kentrienė says.
The Lithuanian-Russian border has already been crossed 6,000 times in January and February this year, almost double the number of journeys recorded in the same period last year.
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