"This is a pre-planned transfer of the American military to participate in joint exercises, which has nothing to do with the events taking place in the region," TASS quoted him as saying.
The American armored battalion with Abrams tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, all-terrain vehicles and other equipment with a total number of up to 40 units will be in Lithuania until mid-November, after which another division of the US Army of the battalion level should come to replace it for six months.
Earlier, Karoblis said that the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises in the Brest region do not pose an immediate threat to Lithuania.