Tensions Escalate Over Cigarette-Smuggling Balloons and ‘Hybrid War’ Accusations
MINSK/VILNIUS :The ongoing diplomatic and logistical crisis between Lithuania and Belarus escalated sharply on Monday, as Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka threatened the potential seizure of up to 1,200 Lithuanian trucks stranded in his country. This warning follows Lithuania’s decision to close two key border crossings due to repeated airspace incursions by meteorological balloons carrying contraband cigarettes.
Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, closed the two border crossings with Belarus on October 29 and plans to keep them shut until at least the end of November. The official reason is the repeated disruption to air traffic at the capital’s Vilnius airport caused by the unauthorized balloons.
Lithuanian officials described the flight disruptions as part of a wider pattern of “anti-Western activities” by Russia-allied Belarus, intended to undermine stability. Lithuania shares a border with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The balloons, often used to smuggle cigarettes into the EU territory, have been intercepted, with an officer inspecting one such balloon shown in an undated photo .
President Lukashenka denounced the border closure as a “mad scam” and part of a “hybrid war” against Belarus. He suggested that Vilnius should instead focus its efforts on combating the smuggling activities taking place on its side of the border.
The Belarusian leader revealed that up to 1,200 Lithuanian trucks were stranded in Belarus due to the closure, demanding that Lithuania fully reopen the border. Belarusian authorities have refused to open a temporary corridor exclusively for the evacuation of the stranded trucks.
Lukashenka issued a direct threat regarding the vehicles, “If they don’t do it in the next few days, we will make a decision in accordance with our law,” he said. “Up to the confiscation of the vehicles.”
He confirmed the trucks have been moved to paid parking areas as “They can’t just loiter on the roads.”
The predicament has left truck drivers stranded for days or weeks. Erlandas Mikėnas of the Lithuanian National Road Carriers’ Association noted that the drivers felt increasingly “tired and angry,” with concerns mounting over potentially spoiled cargo.
The border tensions coincide with heightened alert across Europe following an unprecedented scale of drone incursions into NATO airspace since September, which some European officials have described as Moscow testing the alliance’s response. Lukashenka indicated that Belarusian authorities plan to raise the Lithuanian border closure in their contacts with Washington.