Lithuania Temporarily Shuts Airports, Borders
(MENAFN) Lithuania temporarily closed its two main airports and sealed its border crossings with Belarus on Friday after helium-filled weather balloons entered its airspace for the third time this month.
Authorities confirmed that the Vilnius and Kaunas airports were shut down for safety reasons until 2 a.m. (2300 GMT), while border crossings with Belarus would stay closed until noon on Saturday.
Officials in Lithuania stated that these balloons are being used by smugglers to move illegal cigarettes across the border. They accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko—an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin—of neglecting to stop the activity.
“The national security commission will meet again next week to assess the influence of decisions already made and what else could be done in the short term to make it painful to the smugglers and to Lukashenko’s regime, which allows them to thrive,” Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said in a statement.
According to the national crisis management center, “tens of balloons” were spotted by radar on Friday. The Vilnius airport had also been temporarily closed earlier this month—on Tuesday and October 5—after 25 balloons were detected in Lithuanian airspace.
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