Lithuanian Armed Forces have evacuated 18 Lithuanian and eight Latvian citizens from Lebanon over the weekend, Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas has said.
“The Lithuanian Armed Forces, together with the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC) and the Foreign Ministry, have just successfully evacuated Lithuanian citizens from Lebanon,” he wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Among the evacuees, nine were minors, he said. “All those who called for help were evacuated,” Kasčiūnas added.
On early Sunday, the Lithuanian Air Force Spartan aircraft, carrying the evacuees from Lebanon, landed at the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai.
The aircraft departed for Lebanon on October 4, but according to the pilots, they had to wait almost a day to enter Lebanese airspace because it was too risky to fly in the face of constant bombing.
The Spartan took off from Turkey on October 5 for the Beirut Airport and successfully departed Lebanon with the evacuees, the Lithuanian Armed Forces said in a statement.
Last week, the Foreign Ministry announced that about 30 Lithuanian citizens remained in the country under Israeli shelling.
Last Tuesday, nine Lithuanian citizens successfully arrived in Poland on a Ukrainian-organised flight from Lebanon.
According to the National Crisis Management Centre, there are currently four Lithuanian citizens remaining in Lebanon.
“The NKVC continues to monitor the situation in the region closely and recommends not only not to travel to Lebanon but also to refrain from travelling to Israel due to the tensions in the region,” Darius Buta, a representative of the centre, said in a reply sent to Elta.
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