Lithuania’s Transport Ministry is proposing to close two of the six checkpoints on the border with Belarus, saying this needs to be done in response to the presence of Russian mercenaries in the neighbouring country.
The proposal needs to be endorsed by the entire cabinet. If agreed, the two checkpoints – near Šumskas and Tverečius – will be closed from August 15.
The Transport Ministry argues that the temporary suspension of the checkpoints is comes “due to geopolitical circumstances and the reduction of threats”.
Traffic will be redirected to the Medininkai checkpoint, the largest and most technically equipped of the six checkpoints on Lithuania’s 680-kilometre border with Belarus. According to ministry, it has an X-ray inspection system, whereas those of Tverečius and Šumskas do not.
The move to close the checkpoints comes in response to the relocation of some Wagner mercenaries to Belarus.
Lithuania’s border guard chief Rustamas Liubajevas has said that he would support closing even more checkpoints.
Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavičius has commented that closing all the six border crossing points would not be practicable.
“We would face quite big organisational problems to close the six checkpoints at once,” he told reporters in Medininkai, close to the border, on Wednesday.
He said that neighbouring Poland was also closing crossing points on the border with Belarus.
“The Poles have minimised their number of checkpoints from four to one, the Latvians have two international checkpoints with Belarus, and we have six today, two of which are perhaps limited in capacity,” he said.
The Baltic and Polish interior ministers are planning to hold a meeting shortly to discuss what should be done if the border with Belarus has to be closed completely, according to Abramavičius.
Lithuanian and Polish leaders have said recently that there are currently about 4,000 Wagner fighters in Belarus, with some of them stationed close to the two countries’ borders.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
