Lithuania shuts down airports and seals border with Belarus
Photo: Lithuania closed the border with Belarus (Getty Images)
Lithuania has temporarily closed two border checkpoints with Belarus, Šalčininkai and Medininkai, according to LRT and Radio Liberty.
The restrictions will remain in place until 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 25. According to Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė, the decision was made in line with the recommendations of the National Security Commission, which will convene again next week to assess the effectiveness of the measures.
“We aim for these decisions to be painful both for smugglers and for the Lukashenko regime, which allows them to act with impunity,” the Lithuanian prime minister said.
Airport shutdowns
The decision was preceded by the suspension of operations at Vilnius and Kaunas airports due to the appearance of balloons in the airspace coming from Belarus. According to the National Crisis Management Center, dozens of navigation points were recorded — mostly meteorological balloons moving in the Druskininkai–Šalčininkai direction.
Flights of unknown drones in Lithuania
Vilnius Airport has been forced to suspend operations several times over the past month, with the latest incident occurring on October 21. At that time, Ruginienė warned that Lithuania would close the border if such cases continued.
This is not the first instance of flying objects being detected near Vilnius Airport and the subsequent closure of the airport.
Vilnius Airport was also closed on October 5 due to a similar incident involving helium balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes from Belarus.
In early September, a plane carrying Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda was unable to land at Vilnius Airport for some time after a drone was detected.
