Captain Tomas Skurdenis, chief of staff at the Lithuanian Navy, told the country’s public broadcaster LRT that Russian vessels used to come threateningly close to NATO ships, while Russian aircraft used to fly low over them.

“The security situation is changing on land, but not yet at sea. [The situation] is constantly monitored, but the Russian Navy remains active. The number of provocations in the Baltic Sea has significantly gone down,” Skurdenis said.

“We have not seen this in the Baltic Sea lately. What we are seeing is that a large number of forces are being moved from the Kaliningrad area to the front lines near Ukraine. This is probably the reason why the Russian Navy is no longer so active or provocative,” he added.

According to Skurdenis, a bigger group of NATO vessels will be deployed in the Baltic Sea in the near future to “counter aerial targets.”

He said: “Right now, we have this group [of five vessels] in the Baltic Sea for anti-mine operations, but soon a larger group, which is designed to counter aerial targets and to defend our sky with serious missile weapons, will enter the Baltic Sea.”

Skurdenis’s comments follow on the heels of Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — and Poland enhancing cooperation to improve the security of the European Union’s and NATO's eastern borders.

Defense ministers from the Baltic states and a Polish deputy defense minister met in the southern Latvian city of Daugavpils on September 27, to address growing security threats from Russia and Belarus. The discussions focused on violations of NATO airspace by Russian rockets and drones.