1920–1940 in 1939-1940. Following the
declaration of independence on 16 February 1918, Lithuania had to ensure its border protection. This was a difficult task to fulfill, because the borders were changing (Lithuania took over the
Klaipėda Region in 1923 and was in a perpetual dispute with
Poland over the
Vilnius Region), and the bodies protecting the border were changing as well (the customs and patrol guards, militia and army). The formation of the first border regiment was started on 1 February 1920. On 26 January 1922, the Lithuanian defence minister,
Jonas Šimkus, issued an order designating 29 June as Border Regiment Day. At that time, border regiments protected the border, and the State Border Police was formed in the Klaipėda Region on 18 June 1923. Later, border regiments, units of the
Ministry of Defence, were disbanded, and the border police of the
Ministry of the Interior took over the protection of the state border on 1 January 1924. Before the
first Soviet occupation, the number of Lithuanian border police was not large: 1,656 policemen in 1931 and 1,934 in 1933. This strength was maintained until June 1940 when the
Soviet Union invaded and occupied Lithuania. After that, some border guards were subject to political persecution, the border police was disbanded, and the
Red Army took control of the Lithuanian border with
Nazi Germany. Near the end of
World War II, the Soviets occupied Lithuania for the second time. Throughout their rule, they protected only the Lithuanian border with the
People's Republic of Poland. Soviet security forces, mainly
OMON, carried out a campaign against unarmed Lithuanian border guards: border guards' premises were burnt and wrecked, cars stolen and bombed, and guards were beaten and harassed. On 19 May 1991, Gintaras Žagunis, an officer at the Krakūnai border crossing point at the Lithuania–Belarus border, was shot dead while on duty. On 31 July 1991, seven Lithuanian officers were killed in
Medininkai border point. The only survivor,
Tomas Šernas, became disabled. The attacks on Lithuanian border posts continued until the attempted
August Coup in Moscow on 23 August 1991. A similar treaty was signed with Poland the same year. Illegal migration from Belarus forced the Lithuanian government to declare a state-level "extraordinary situation" (similar but weaker legal regime than the
state of emergency) in July 2021 to enable the border guards better protect the border. In August 2021, the State Border Guard Service presented a project of the proposed
barrier for the entire
Belarus–Lithuania border which would be high and would use multiple layers of the
Concertina wire. The Lithuanian parliament approved it as a matter of urgency. Meanwhile, by the end of July,
EU Frontex deployed 100 officers, 30 patrol cars and 2 helicopters to support the border protection. In 2024, taking into account the lessons from the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government decided to equip the border guards with the heavy weapons. As of late 2024, the border guards were equipped with
Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles and
FN Minimi machine guns. ==Structure==