Lithuania and Poland sit on NATO’s Frontline — the alliance’s most exposed edge against a resurgent and aggressive Russia. Our nine-day Poland & Lithuania Tour traces that frontline from the Suwałki Gap to the Belarusian border and on to Warsaw, examining the military build-up, hybrid warfare, and disinformation campaigns testing the region, alongside the political will and civic resilience being mobilised to counter them. Along the way we meet senior politicians, defence and intelligence officials, journalists and civil society leaders on the sharp end of Europe’s confrontation with Moscow.
Poland & Lithuania Tour: Background
The collapse of the Soviet Union reshaped Eastern Europe. One after another, former Soviet republics declared independence, launched democratic reforms, and turned westward. Poland joined NATO in 1999; Lithuania followed in 2004, the same year both entered the European Union – anchoring themselves to the West.
NATO membership brought the promise of collective defence under Article 5, backed by unparalleled US military might. For countries on the Eastern Flank – those sharing borders with Russia – it offered a vital shield against future aggression.
But that shield now looks uncertain.
Since 2014, Vladimir Putin has pursued an aggressive campaign of military revanchism. He seems intent on recreating the Soviet empire, or at least reasserting Russia’s historic sphere of influence. The war in Ukraine made that clear, shattering Europe’s post-war security assumptions and drawing a clear line between Russia and the West.
Under President Biden, the US doubled down – pouring billions into Ukraine, expanding NATO to include Sweden and Finland, and pledging to defend every inch of allied territory. But Trump’s second presidency signalled a sharp pivot: turning to China, pulling back from Europe, and pressing NATO allies to fend for themselves. Trump’s Oval Office blowout with President Zelensky signified a break from decades of transatlantic partnership – and raised the chilling prospect that, in a future crisis, NATO’s Eastern Flank might stand alone.
Now Poland and Lithuania are racing to rearm and deepen regional defence ties, bracing for a future without guaranteed US support. Yet the challenges are steep – fragmented European resolve, overstretched and underfunded militaries, and a Russian leadership that may sense an historic opportunity.
Can the Eastern Flank rise to meet the moment? And how will their choices shape how Europe defends itself for generations to come? At this turning point, we travel to Poland and Lithuania to assess those questions ourselves.
Poland & Lithuania Tour: Reading List
“Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate,” by M. E. Sarotte
- Publisher: Yale University Press (2021)
- Language: English
- Pages: 568
“NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World’s Most Powerful Alliance,” by Sten Rynning
- Publisher: Yale University Press (2024)
- Language: English
- Pages: 368
“Security At The Polish-Lithuanian Border,” by Christina Chatzitheodorou
“War with Russia: An Urgent Warning from Senior Military Command,” by General Sir Richard Shirreff
- Publisher: Quercus (2016)
- Language: English
- Pages: 400
Itinerary
Tour begins at 7pm. Lithuania sits at the northern end of the Suwałki Gap — the narrow land corridor linking the Baltic states to the rest of NATO — and has been one of Europe’s most outspoken voices on Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Over the coming days the group travels south through that corridor, across the strategically sensitive Polish–Belarusian border, and on to Warsaw for the final days of the tour.
An introduction to the week ahead over a welcome dinner.
Overnight Vilnius
Lithuania’s fierce anti-Russian stance is inseparable from its twentieth-century experience: Soviet occupation, mass deportations, and a Holocaust that wiped out one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities. The day begins by confronting that history before turning to Russia as it is today.
The group visits a former KGB and Gestapo prison, now a museum documenting Soviet repression in Lithuania, followed by the Green House, a museum chronicling the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry during the Second World War.
In the afternoon the group meets, at their home, a veteran Russian journalist and his family; now living in exile. Few observers have watched Russia’s political evolution more closely, and his assessment of where Russia stands today opens a thread returned to throughout the tour.
The group returns to the hotel.
Overnight Vilnius
Lithuania’s response to the Russian threat has not been purely military. Since 2022 the country has rapidly dismantled its economic ties with Russia, cut itself off from the Soviet-era electricity grid, and invested heavily in energy independence. At the same time its public broadcaster has emerged as a model of investigative journalism in a region where media independence is under pressure. Today the group examines both fronts.
The day begins at a government ministry responsible for economic policy, where officials walk the group through Lithuania’s economic pivot — the deliberate dismantling of Russian energy dependency and the investment in alternatives that has helped insulate the country from Russian pressure.
At the country’s public broadcaster, the group meets its Head of Investigative Journalism, who discusses how Lithuanian journalism covers the war and how the country’s media has resisted disinformation campaigns from the east.
In the afternoon the group calls on a leading geopolitical think tank for a joint session with a Belarus expert and a retired colonel, a former head of military intelligence, before meeting the director of a civic resilience organisation working to strengthen Lithuanian society’s resistance to Russian information operations.
Overnight Vilnius
Lithuania punches well above its weight in the debate over how Europe should respond to Russia. Its politicians were among the first to call for gas embargoes, weapons deliveries to Ukraine and tougher sanctions. Today the group meets the diplomats, parliamentarians and security experts who have shaped that posture.
The day begins at a ministry responsible for foreign policy, with a high-level overview of Lithuania’s approach toward Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
At the Seiman, the national parliament, we meet leading figures who have played a central role in Lithuania’s defence build-up. At a leading university the group speaks with an internal security expert about how Lithuania thinks about policing its borders and protecting its institutions. Lithuania and the other Baltic states are looking to Finland and it’s “total defence” strategy to deal with the threat from Russia.
Overnight Vilnius
The group drives south from Vilnius today, traversing the Suwałki corridor and crossing into Poland to reach the country’s most politically sensitive frontier: the border with Belarus. Since 2021, Belarus and Russia have deliberately channelled thousands of migrants across this border as a tool of political pressure — a form of hybrid warfare designed to destabilise a NATO member state. The group visits the frontier to see how Poland is responding and hears from those working on the humanitarian consequences.
The group arrives at the borderlands for a briefing at a border outpost, where security officials explain the situation on the frontier and the mechanics of the migration crisis.
Later the group will meet representatives of a humanitarian NGO supporting migrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia who have crossed the border — a reminder that behind the geopolitics lies a humanitarian emergency affecting some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The group spends the night in Białystok, the largest city in eastern Poland and a natural base for exploring the region.
Overnight Białystok
The group leaves Białystok and heads west towards Warsaw, with a route through the landscape of eastern Poland. Today combines a visit to one of NATO’s most impressive new fortification projects with a window into the civilian volunteer networks that have made Ukraine’s drone warfare so formidable.
Permission depending the group will be briefed from senior defence officials on a major new programme of fortifications along Poland’s eastern border. The 18th Armoured Brigade is one of the Polish Army’s most important formations and a key element of Poland’s eastern defence posture, forming part of a mechanised division created after Russia’s seizure of Crimea and later expanded following the invasion of Ukraine.
Following a break at the hotel, the group heads to open fields on the outskirts of the city to meet a Ukrainian scientist and civic activist living in Warsaw who leads a volunteer initiative supplying FPV drone platforms to Ukraine’s frontlines.
Overnight Warsaw
As the largest country on NATO’s eastern flank and the alliance’s biggest defence spender by percentage of GDP, Poland has become central to Western strategy against Russia. Today the group works through the full spectrum of Poland’s response: geopolitics, satellite technology, defence journalism, intelligence and a Crimean Tatar perspective on the war.
The day begins at a leading government-linked think tank on Russia and the region, for a discussion with senior analysts. The group then visits a satellite technology company at the forefront of the sector, to learn how commercial space assets are reshaping modern warfare and Poland’s ambitions to build its own satellite constellation.
At a leading independent defence and security news outlet, the group speaks with journalists before sitting down for lunch with a former senior government official responsible for countering disinformation, one of the country’s foremost experts on hybrid warfare.
At the national English-language television channel, the group hears from journalists about how the Polish media covers the conflict.
Overnight Warsaw
On the final full day in Warsaw, the group explores the economic transformation of the 1990s and the wartime wounds that continue to define Polish identity and politics.
The day begins with a leading economist, former deputy prime minister and principal architect of Poland’s “shock therapy” economic reforms of the 1990s — arguably the most consequential single policy decision in modern Polish history.
The group then visits a landmark skyscraper, the tallest in the European Union, where a commentator and urban activist offers a frank assessment of Warsaw’s rapid modernisation, its ambitions and its costs.
The group walks to the remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto wall for a guided tour of the former ghetto with a historian and journalist, who brings alive the tragedy of the city’s wartime Jewish community, before visiting a historic palace that serves as headquarters to a veterans’ association representing survivors of the Second World War and former political prisoners, where the group meets surviving veterans of the war and the Warsaw Uprising.
The evening brings the group together for a farewell dinner.
Overnight Warsaw
Tour ends after breakfast.
Kamil Calus is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Eastern Studies. He is based out of Warsaw and has extensive ties to its defence and security industry.
He is a graduate (MA) of International Relations (Eastern Studies) and Journalism and Social Communication (BA) at the Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznań. Kamil holds a postgraduate degree in “Energy Trade on the European Market” at the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) in Warsaw. He regularly writes on Romanian and Moldovan issues (including Tygodnik Powszechny weekly magazine) and is the author of “Moldova. The state of unnecessity” (Czarne Publishing House, 2020).
Essentials
The average daily temperatures in Poland/Lithuania in June range from 15-23°C during the day and 10-13°C at night.
The maximum size of our tours is 14 people, ensuring the small-group experience.
We provide genuine learning experiences through the eyes and ears of an expert, politician, or journalist.
Accommodation, meals (breakfast, lunch, and most dinners), and water are all included in tour package.
Our Poland & Lithuania Tour begins in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, and ends in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.
Poland uses the Polish zloty; Lithuania uses the Euro. Vendors in both countries accept major Western credit cards.
What’s included
All of your accommodation is included, as well as local transport (except during your free time).
Flights are not included in the price and need to be arranged by customers themselves or with an agent.
Following the news
Like all our tours the itinerary is focused on current affairs. Events on the ground may change and the final schedule may be adjusted accordingly. We will never travel to a place where we cannot guarantee your safety.
Group size
On any of our expert-led tours the groups are deliberately small and will not exceed 14 people. Frequently we travel with 10-12 people. Limited spaces are available.
FCO Website – Travel Advice
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office publishes regularly updated travel information on its website www.fco.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo which you are recommended to consult before booking and in good time before departure. Where it considers it appropriate to do so, the FCO may advise against all travel or all but essential travel to particular countries or parts of particular countries. Similarly, the FCO may withdraw any such previously given advice. Where the FCO issues such advice, we may as a result cancel your tour or make changes so as to avoid the area concerned (see clause 10). Alternatively, we may ask you to sign a form confirming you wish to proceed with the tour notwithstanding the FCO advice. It is in the nature of the itineraries we offer that the FCO may have issued such advice in relation to the country or parts of the country we are intending to visit prior to confirmation of your booking. In this case, you will be asked to sign the above form before we confirm your booking.
Medical Requirements
Advice on health requirements may be obtained from your GP, or alternatively from the Department of Health leaflet Advice on Health for Travelers, or the Department of Health in the UK. For further information on vaccination requirements, health outbreaks and general disease protection and prevention you should visit http://www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk/destinations.aspx
Currency
Poland uses the Polish złoty; Lithuania uses the Euro. Vendors in both countries accept major Western credit cards; however, if you plan to purchase things in either country, we advise you to carry paper currency.
Weather
Expect daytime temperatures to rise as high as 24°C and nighttime temperatures as low as 4°C. Expect several rainy days. We advise travellers to monitor weather forecasts as the tour date approaches.
What to wear
Dress is casual and comfortable. Shoes suitable for walking over different types of terrains are recommended. Layers are recommended as it is cooler in the evenings. Rain gear is recommended.
Men: Will need a jacket and tie for some of the meetings.
Women: You will need smarter dress for one or two meetings.
Electricity
Poland uses Type E outlets; Lithuania uses Type F.
Poland: On NATO’s Frontline with Kamil Calus
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Poland & Lithuania Expert:
Kamil Calus
Kamil Calus is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) for the Republic of Moldova (since 2012) and also Romania (since 2018). He regularly writes on Romanian and Moldovan issues (including Tygodnik Powszechny weekly magazine) and is the author of “Moldova. The state of unnecessity.”
