NATO member closes border with key Russian ally

Lithuania will halt crossings with Belarus indefinitely and shoot down any alleged contraband balloons

Lithuania will indefinitely suspend border crossings with Belarus and has authorized its border guards to shoot down any balloons it alleges are used for cross-border smuggling, Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene announced on Monday.

The move comes amid a series of incidents involving small weather balloons allegedly used by smugglers to ferry tobacco products across the border. Lithuanian officials claim the airborne contraband launches originate in Belarus and have caused disruptions, including flight delays at Vilnius International Airport.

Ruginiene said the indefinite shutdown could take effect as soon as Wednesday, following a pattern of intermittent border closures over the past week. She added that Vilnius will also urge the EU to impose additional sanctions on Minsk.

Belarusian officials have condemned Lithuania’s abrupt restrictions of cross-border traffic, saying travelers are facing uncertainty as a result. The Belarusian border service said that their Lithuanian counterparts were already “already working ten times slower than their capacity allows.”

Smuggling remains a long-standing issue between the neighboring countries, driven by steep price differences on tobacco products, exacerbated by prohibitive excise duties in the European Union. A pack of cigarettes that costs roughly €1.25 ($1.47) in Belarus can sell for €5 ($5.82) in Lithuania, prompting as many as a quarter of Lithuanian smokers to seek illicit products.

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The EU has repeatedly accused Belarus of waging “hybrid operations” against the bloc, including in 2021 when Minsk was accused of facilitating the movement of migrants across its borders – a charge it denies. That crisis led to temporary border closures and harsh migrant crackdowns by neighboring EU states, which human rights groups later condemned as violations of the union’s own laws.

While Belarus has seen a significant diplomatic thaw with Washington in recent months, relations with the broader West remain frosty, as EU governments continue to treat Minsk as an extension of Russia.