Belarus’ refusal to allow Lithuanian lorries to leave the country and its continued failure to prevent smugglers’ balloons from crossing the border form part of a “combined attack” against Lithuania, Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said in Brussels on Monday, urging the swift adoption of new EU sanctions.
Speaking ahead of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on trade, Budrys told reporters that this is the term he now uses to describe Minsk’s actions.
“Because we are also facing an economic coercion measure employed by Belarus by seizing and holding our lorries with semi-trailers, threatening to nationalise them and thereby putting pressure on one of the European Union’s member states,” he said.
Budrys stressed that the European Commission must act to protect EU companies when one member state “is singled out for attack” through economic coercion.
“Today, the issue that will matter most to me at the table when we discuss economic pressure measures is sanctions – on representatives of the regime, on individual sectors of the economy, and on trade, which is also very important,” the minister said. “We will discuss this today; the pace must increase. I hope all the documents that need to move forward from the Commission will do so as quickly as possible.”
He added that last week’s incident – when an EU commissioner was unable to land in Vilnius because of a closure at the capital’s airport – was “another reminder, another signal that this is not hypothetical or distant; it is very real and causing major damage”.
Vilnius Airport was closed for more than an hour last Thursday due to the threat posed by smugglers’ balloons, delaying the arrival of a flight carrying EU commissioner Andrius Kubilius and Budrys back from Brussels.
Over the past 24 hours, operations at the country’s main airport have been suspended twice more – on Sunday evening and again early on Monday – for several hours for the same reason.
According to the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), 13 flights were cancelled and six were diverted to Kaunas. The NKVC chief said radar screens had shown more than 40 traces consistent with smugglers’ balloons; by Monday morning, six had been recovered and searches were continuing.
Lithuania had closed its border with Belarus for around three weeks because of the balloon threat, reopening it last Thursday after officials cited an improved situation.
In response to the closure, Minsk barred Lithuanian lorries located in Belarus from returning home. Despite the reopening of the Medininkai and Šalčininkai checkpoints, Lithuanian drivers are still being prevented from returning.
Before Budrys introduced the term “combined attack”, Lithuanian officials had described the balloon incursions as a hybrid attack orchestrated by Minsk.
Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said last week that the border could be closed again if the incursions continue.
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