Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said he has asked US officials to help secure the release of Lithuanian citizens imprisoned in Belarus.
“I won’t go into details, but I can confirm this was the most important issue we discussed,” Budrys said in an interview with 15min.lt. “That’s how I opened the conversation – by explaining what Lithuania’s interests are and what we want: for our citizens to be left in peace.”
In June, the US and Belarus reached an agreement that led to the release of 14 political prisoners from Belarus, including prominent opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who has since resettled in Lithuania.
Budrys said he spoke with US Special Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg and other American officials both before and after their trip to Belarus.
“I won’t discuss the details of what our American friends plan to do, but we clearly conveyed Lithuania’s position,” Budrys said. “Those of our citizens who are unlawfully imprisoned in Belarus must be released – that is our objective.”
No Lithuanian nationals were among those released in June.
Drone incident raises security concerns
Budrys also said that Vilnius has yet to receive a response from Minsk regarding a Russian-made drone that entered Lithuanian airspace earlier in July – an incident he described as highly dangerous.
“If they consider the incident serious, then withholding information increases the risk of miscalculations and misguided decisions that could have severe consequences – especially when it comes to NATO’s response,” Budrys said.
He warned that Belarus must understand “whom it’s dealing with and what kind of consequences could follow”.
“This time it was a dummy drone, meant to act as a decoy and exhaust air defence systems,” Budrys said. “Next time it could be armed, and it might not malfunction or crash – it could fly farther, cause damage, and put us on an escalation path everyone wants to avoid.”
“I can’t imagine that, in the event of damage, Lithuania would not respond with specific countermeasures,” he added. “If anyone here gets hurt, everyone would be forced to react.”
On July 10, a drone entered Lithuanian airspace. Authorities initially suspected it was a Shahed drone, the type used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. However, it was later identified as a Russian-made Gerbera drone, visually similar to the Shahed, used to deceive air defence systems.
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