Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys and Transport Minister Juras Taminskas have urged the European Commission to help recover trucks stranded in Belarus and to impose further sanctions on the Minsk regime in response to the recent wave of smugglers’ balloon incursions.
The ministers call on the Commission to develop a coherent EU action plan to support European hauliers currently stuck in Belarus and to address the security risks posed by unmanned aerial objects – including contraband-carrying balloons – along the Lithuanian–Belarusian border, reported BNS.
They also ask Commissioners Kaja Kallas and Apostolos Tzitzikostas, responsible for foreign affairs and transport respectively, to demand at the EU level for the full and unconditional release of European hauliers’ trucks being unlawfully detained on the Belarusian side.
The letter further requests the Commission’s support in advancing Lithuania’s proposed new sanctions on Belarus, aimed in part at officials in Minsk deemed responsible for orchestrating the balloon incursions.
Later Monday, Budrys later spoke by phone with Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief, urging the European Union not to allow Belarus to secure the lifting of sanctions.
“The Belarusian regime has repeatedly used hybrid tools against EU member states. A few years ago it was instrumentalized migration, now it is smugglers' balloons. By blackmailing Lithuania and demanding political dialogue, the Lukashenko regime is trying to break the EU's firm stance, end its international isolation and shake off sanctions. We cannot allow this to happen,” Budrys was quoted as saying in the Foreign Ministry's press release.
Budrys said he expects progress soon on Lithuania's additional Belarus sanctions proposals submitted to the European Commission in late October.
“Stricter sanctions on the Belarusian regime are a necessary response to its actions. The EU cannot quietly watch and tolerate a regime that is recklessly terrorizing an EU member state, seizing assets and deliberately putting citizens' safety at risk. This is an attack not only on Lithuania but on the entire EU. The EU must show it has a backbone,” he said.
Lithuanian trucks were left stranded in Belarus after Minsk began blocking their departure in retaliation for Lithuania’s decision to close the border.
Lithuania closed its border with Belarus on October 30 due to ongoing balloon incursions that had repeatedly disrupted operations at Vilnius Airport, but reopened it on November 20.
Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said late last week that approximately 280 trucks remained stuck in Belarus, while the national hauliers’ association Linava maintains that the overall number of Lithuanian vehicles is closer to 4,000, including around 1,250 lorries.
Lithuanian haulage associations say companies have received warnings from Belarusian authorities that vehicles left idle in designated parking areas for four months will be confiscated.
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