Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has described Lithuania’s decision to close its border as "a mad affair". Lukashenko also said he would apologise if Belarus was proven to be responsible for the balloons crossing into the Baltic country.
According to the state-run news agency Belta, Lukashenko made the remarks on Tuesday at an international security conference in Minsk.
“Not only we, the participants, were waiting for this conference, but also our opponents, who are closely watching Minsk today,” he said. “Some of our neighbours sought to prevent others from attending by launching this mad border-closing affair – and they came up with an absurd pretext: balloons. Even for such a small country as Lithuania, this is a petty matter.”
Lukashenko insisted there was “no talk of any special contraband”, but claimed the episode showed the political significance of the conference, as others were “trying to block it”.
He added that “the biggest powers” were already demanding an apology from Belarus.
“If you are guilty, you should always apologise. And if we are certain that we are at fault – as they are now trying to convince us – we are ready to discuss it publicly and to apologise. Truly. But if some little balloons carrying cigarettes or something else are flying around, I think the problem should be solved on their side. Someone is receiving them, someone is interested in them. Such things must be detected and stopped at the root,” he said.
Following Lithuania’s decision to indefinitely close the Šalčininkai and Medininkai border checkpoints after repeated incidents involving contraband balloons entering from Belarus, Minsk condemned the move as a “provocation and stupidity”.
Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov said the step was a provocation and claimed that Lithuanian authorities should instead focus on “organised Lithuanian gangs profiting from smuggling”.
“These balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes have been flying there for a long time,” Ryzhenkov said in a statement. “But most interestingly, we have not received any diplomatic notes.”
The minister said he had discussed the issue with Lukashenko, who reportedly called the closure “complete stupidity”.
Minsk also summoned Lithuania’s chargé d’affaires, Erikas Vilkanecas, to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and handed him a protest note, denouncing “yet another unilateral closure of the Lithuanian Republic’s border, carried out without prior notice”.
In a statement cited by Belta and the independent portal Zerkalo, the ministry said that the decision affects the rights of Belarussian, Lithuanian, EU, and other foreign citizens, showing Vilnius' disregard towards fundamental principles of freedom of movement.
According to the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (SVAT), diplomats, diplomatic mail, Lithuanian and EU citizens, travellers in transit to and from Russia’s Kaliningrad region holding simplified transit documents as well as people holding a Lithuanian residency permit, will still be permitted to cross the border from Belarus through the Medininkai checkpoint.
Still, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry called the move “hostile to ordinary people”, adding that “common citizens have become hostages to political aims”.
It maintained that Belarus “has consistently advocated for normalisation of dialogue and practical cooperation on border control”.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, told the Associated Press that the balloon incidents were “another sign that the regime is using cigarette smuggling as a tool of hybrid aggression against Europe”.
“The border closures are a logical step to ensure security,” she said. “We support Lithuania and its partners in tightening sanctions against cigarette producers, carriers and organisers of smuggling.”
Lithuania closed the Šalčininkai and Medininkai border crossings on Sunday evening after a series of meteorological balloons carrying contraband flew into its territory from Belarus.
The National Security Commission decided on Monday to close both crossings indefinitely, with exceptions mentioned above.
Over the weekend, Lithuania’s airports were closed three times due to balloon incursions from Belarus, affecting 112 flights and more than 16,500 passengers.
Earlier in the week, several dozen contraband balloons were also detected, disrupting operations at Vilnius Airport and affecting around 30 flights and over 4,000 passengers.
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