After Lithuania closed its border with Belarus in response to what it called a hybrid attack, thousands of lorries ended up stuck on the other side. The Minsk regime is now threatening to confiscate them.
“We are waiting for a decision from the government to allow us to go to Belarus. We have seven semi-trailers stuck in Belarus, seven lorries are standing there, and the drivers are living in their cabs,” said Vitalijus Gigevičius, head of the Kelruva company.
Businesses say they face millions in losses that will have a cascading effect on everyone in the logistics sector, including auxiliary services such as warehousing.
According to Gigevičius, a third of all their work involves Belarus.
“Without that 30 percent, there will be no 70 percent of the work,” he added.
Part of the cargo used to travel from Western Europe through Lithuania to the east.
“When the decision was made to close the border, we lost our status as a transit country. Cargo volumes are decreasing. The entire flow is going to the Poles,” said Gigevičius.
Two-thirds of another company’s fleet is now stuck in Belarus.
“We are trying to adapt to the situation, but at the moment it is critical,” said Ignas Motiejūnas, shareholder of Koldlita.
“We didn’t really expect the authorities to simply close border checkpoints without informing businesses, without giving us the chance to remove the equipment before closure,” he added.
Following the border closures, Minsk imposed a ban on lorries registered in Lithuania and Poland from driving in the country. According to Linava that represents the country’s hauliers, around 1,000 lorries and several thousand trailers are stuck in the country.
Lithuanian authorities then requested Minsk to allow the lorries to leave, but without result. It’s also unclear how lorries stuck further inside Belarus could travel to the border crossing points when they are banned from driving on the country/s roads.
“Perhaps carriers themselves will sort something out — they operate in that territory, they understand the specifics better,” said Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič.
Vilnius is not considering reopening the borders, saying that smuggling balloons have decreased over the past week, even when the winds were favourable for launching them towards Lithuania.
“We have a neighbour who instrumentalises anything that moves, anything he can throw at us. We must increase our resilience,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys.
Meanwhile, owners of the country’s logistics sector point at railway transit, which continues to be open despite the border closure.
“If we are applying pressure, we should apply it across all routes. Why are some allowed to move while others must suffer losses?” said Linava vice president Oleg Tarasov.
Business owners are worried that the logistics chain will now go around Lithuania.
“There will be about half less transit; we will lose around 7–8 percent of GDP,” said Tarasov, saying the losses would “amount to billions”.
Lithuania’s closed borders give businesses in Poland and Latvia an opening, according to Aleksandras Izgorodinas, economist at Citadele bank.
“There will be problems, but in my opinion, they are not very serious and not very large. Across all transport volumes, this is a drop in the ocean,” he added.
But small carriers disagree, saying the impact will be enormous. They are even considering relocating their businesses.
“In the next few weeks, we still have some inertia, with cargo still moving. But in the long term, after a few months, we will feel the effect — Western carriers will stop receiving cargo to Lithuania, they will not bring it here, and they will probably stop at Poland,” said Motiejūnas. shareholder of Koldlita.
According to experts, sanctions and border closures only work when all regional countries do it at the same time. If Latvia and Poland doesn’t follow Lithuania’s examples, the pressure on the Minsk regime will be minimal, while only the local businesses will suffer.
Poland plans to reopen its border with Belarus in mid-November.
“The cargo flows will quickly change direction and go through those countries. That is not good economically and not good politically,” said Izgorodinas, economist at Citadele bank.
However, working in Belarus and Russia has always been risky, even if more profitable.
“Work with CIS markets is relatively more profitable than with EU markets, but entrepreneurs must accept greater risk,” said Izgorodinas.
It’s unfair to blame Lithuania for the losses, according to Vytis Jurkonis, lecturer at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science.
“All claims and accusations should be directed at the Belarusian regime,” he added.
Lukashenko’s blackmail
Minsk was not redirecting stuck lorries to specially designated parking zones in the Katlovka district near the Lithuanian border.
The decision was made “to ensure safety and protection,” independent Belarusian media Nasha Niva quoted officials as saying.
On Monday, Belarus’s authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko announced that each lorry would have to pay a daily fee of 120 euros, adding “the Lithuanian authorities decided to play a cat-and-mouse game”.
If the money isn’t paid, the lorries and trailers will be confiscated, Lukashenko said.
According to media reports, drivers are allowed to leave Belarus without their lorries.
“As Belarusian media report and our drivers say from the ground, the border is closed and Lithuanians are not being let through even at the Medininkai checkpoint,” Tarasov, the vice president of the Linava association, said.
“Carriers will now be driven to paid parking areas near Kotlovka, where there is no space left, or towards Brest, which is several hundred kilometres from Medininkai. That will cost extra,” he added.
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