Lithuania may again shut its border with Belarus indefinitely if security threats worsen, Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said Friday, a day after the country reopened two crossings and contraband balloons once more disrupted operations at Vilnius Airport.
“Today we see that we can reopen the borders, but we are not ruling out the possibility of closing them again for an unlimited time if the situation deteriorates,” Ruginienė told reporters at Kaunas Airport.
She said the use of contraband-carrying balloons launched from Belarus has become “our new reality” but that authorities have adjusted response procedures.
“We can say that we are closing airports less often, and we are preparing for every new threat,” she said.
Ruginienė stressed that border closures alone will not stop the balloon launches and that Lithuania is taking broader measures fighting smugglers responsible for the balloon launches.
“We have carried out a significant number of searches and made arrests, which shows that over the past year we have intensified our fight against smuggling,” she said. “We see this in the number of balloons crossing our border. We are also working actively through diplomatic channels.”
She said Lithuania’s decision in late October to close the border for a month was an “extreme measure” taken in response to alleged targeted attempts to direct contraband balloons toward Vilnius Airport.
Minsk blocking Lithuanian trucks
The Medininkai and Šalčininkai border checkpoints reopened at midnight Thursday. However, Belarus has continued blocking Lithuanian trucks from returning, a move Ruginienė said proves the Belarusian government is conducting a “hybrid attack”.
“[Alexander] Lukashenko has already shown through his actions that we were right when we spoke about a hybrid attack,” she said. “The fact that trucks still cannot return shows we were right and that we were fighting against a hybrid attack.”
She added that Lithuania consistently stated it would allow Lithuanian trucks to return throughout the temporary border closure, but Minsk instead took “illegal actions”.
“There were illegal actions from the Belarusian side when they closed the border on their side,” she said.
Meanwhile, Belarus has also accused Vilnius of acting illegally in the way that it closed and reopened the border
“The decision to close the border was taken unilaterally by the Lithuanian side, was purely political in nature and was made outside the procedures and deadlines provided for in existing international treaties. For example, in accordance with the bilateral agreement on border crossing points, an official notification of such actions must be sent in advance: from one to five days, depending on the situation,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Ruslan Varankov Varanov was quoted by the Belta news agency on Thursday.
Moreover, Varanov noted that the risk remains of Vilnius unilaterally closing the border again.
Lithuania reopened the border Thursday citing improved conditions, but by that evening contraband balloons again forced disruptions at Vilnius Airport. The incident affected more than 1,100 passengers and 10 flights, according to officials.
Lithuania closed the Belarus border in late October due to security concerns stemming from the balloon launches. In response, Minsk barred Lithuanian trucks located in Belarus from leaving until the border reopened.
Although the two crossings resumed operations, Lithuania-registered cargo trucks have not returned.
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