According to her, a large group of balloons with contraband was launched from Belarusian territory.
Because of this, the airports of Vilnius and Kaunas had to be temporarily closed, Ruginienė emphasized.
“In response to this situation, the State Border Service has closed the border points of Šalčininkai and Medininkai with Belarus until tomorrow 12.00,” the Lithuanian prime minister wrote.
Vilnius Airport's Facebook page reported that plane traffic was temporarily stopped at 20.31 due to balloons flying towards it. A number of flights were redirected, and some were cancelled.
At the same time, Kaunas airport temporarily stopped operating at 20.36, according to a message on its Facebook page. The reason is the same – the movement of balloons towards the airport. Three flights were affected – two were diverted, another was delayed.
Both airports introduced airspace restrictions until 2.00 on October 25.
Ruginienė said that the Lithuanian authorities will discuss next week what can be done “to make it painful” both for the smugglers and for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who considers himself the president of Belarus, “allowing them to commit outrages.”
“The most important thing now is that the residents of Lithuania are not endangered, which is why appropriate decisions are being made,” the prime minister said.
The State Customs Committee of Belarus called the closure of the border with Lithuania “another decision of the neighboring party without prior notification” of Minsk.
Context
European aviation has been repeatedly thrown into chaos by drones and aerial incursions in recent weeks, including at airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.
On the night of October 22, several dozen balloons carrying contraband hit Lithuania, which disrupted the work of the airport in Vilnius. Lithuania also temporarily closed the Medininkai and Šalčininkai checkpoints.
Ruginienė then threatened that if such balloons crossed the Lithuanian border en masse again, Vilnius would react immediately and close the Lithuanian border with Belarus.
