Belarusian media reports suggesting that Lithuanian lorries stranded in Minsk have begun returning home are inaccurate, the head of Lithuania’s national road carriers’ association has said.
Erlandas Mikėnas, president of Linava, told BNS on Monday that none of the vehicles detained in Belarus had left the designated parking areas, despite claims to the contrary.
“There is no movement of Lithuanian trucks [across the Belarusian border – BNS]; the situation remains unchanged,” Mikėnas said. “Information came from the Belarusian side that everything was in order and that the trucks had been released – this was also passed on to me by the National Crisis Management Centre – but the situation has not changed.”
On Sunday, the Belarusian news outlet Nasha Niva reported that Lithuanian trucks had left holding areas and were heading back to Lithuania via the Kamienny Łoh–Medininkai and Benyakoni–Šalčininkai border crossings, insisting that there were no barriers to their movement on the Belarusian side.
“Today I checked, and not a single truck has left the parking area […] so the information [reported by Belarusian media – BNS] has not been confirmed,” Mikėnas said, adding that Minsk continued to demand talks with Vilnius at foreign ministry level.
He suggested Belarusian media may have mistaken ordinary cross-border freight movements for the release of the stranded lorries – noting that trucks which had left Belarus before the border closure at the end of October are now able to re-enter Lithuania, but those caught inside the country remain stuck.
Data from the State Border Guard Service, cited by BNS on Monday morning, shows that no Lithuanian hauliers’ trucks have entered Lithuania for the past five days.
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