Since 9 December 2025, the state of emergency has been in force throughout Lithuania. Its introduction by the local government is the aftermath of intensified Belarusian hybrid attacks utilizing smuggling balloons. According to Euro MP Mariusz Kamiński, these shares have nothing to do with smuggling, as maintained by the government of Alaksandra Lukashenko. Minsk's actions paralyze civilian airports but, above all, pose a safety threat. They are powerfully condemned by the European Parliament, which in its resolution calls on Belarus, among others, to halt hybrid attacks. In fresh days Poland has besides dealt with this kind of aggression.
The Operations Command of the Armed Forces Types on December 25 reported that on Christmas Eve, it was observed how objects from Belarus were flying into Polish airspace. Most likely these were smuggling balloons and radar systems were watching them all along. Therefore, for safety reasons, part of the airspace over the Podlaskie Voivodeship was temporarily excluded from usage for civilian traffic. Since the beginning of the year, the Podlaskie Border defender Branch has recorded 135 events related to the smuggling of cigarettes utilizing meteorological balloons. The estimated value of secured cigarettes totals over PLN 3.4 million.
The Lithuanian government reported in early December that in 2025 599 smuggling balloons and 197 drones were reported entering the country's airspace.
– The usage of Belarusian balloons that scope Lithuania's airspace is simply a fresh component of the hybrid war. It is about destabilising the situation in Lithuania, and thus in our region, due to the fact that these balloons can besides be utilized to destabilise the situation in another countries. We are talking not about a few, respective dozen, but about hundreds of balloons in weeks, which violate the airspace of a comparatively tiny country, Lithuania - says Newseria Mariusz Kamiński, associate of the European Parliament of Law and Justice. – Airports in Vilnius and Kaunas had to be closed many times due to the real threat to safety in air traffic, thus for the safety of passengers.
On 9 December this year, it was reported that the Belarusian attacks disrupted about 350 flights in Lithuania. Since October, the airports have closed for nearly 60 hours in total, and thus the inconvenience has affected about 51,000 passengers.
– This is simply a very perfidious action by the Lukashenko regime. Its form is new, but the nonsubjective is the same as for illegal migrants, which are instrumentally targeted into the territory of the European Union from Belarus: to destabilise the situation, to make chaos in European Union countries – says Mariusz Kamiński.
The Lithuanian authorities decided to introduce an emergency situation throughout the country, not just in selected regions, due to the expanding hybrid attacks from Belarus on 9 December. It was dictated that smuggling balloons can decision in more than 1 administrative unit, depending on the wind. Interferences have already occurred not only in Vilnius and Kaunas, but besides in the interiors of the country – around Saul and Kiejdan.
With the introduction of an emergency, Lithuanian state institutions can carry out more coordinated action. The police and border guards support the military, which, among others, tests possible methods of neutralising targets and participates in airspace surveillance. In addition, police, border guards, customs-criminal services and military police conduct border checks all night, checking thousands of cars and people, intercepting balloons and requisitioning smuggled goods.
The Lithuanians are shooting down balloons, it's the right reaction. However, they request to be technically supported so that they can do so very effectively, so that the Belarusian regime's actions are unprofitable, even ridiculous. Unfortunately, this is not yet the case in Lithuania, but thanks to the assistance that can be provided within the Union, within NATO, it will be possible to bring about order rapidly and effectively in this area - measure the Euro MPs of the Law and Justice.
On 18 December this year, the European Parliament adopted by a large majority a resolution condemning the actions of the Belarusian authorities. Not only about coordinated, deliberate and hostile intrusions of unmanned aircraft, but besides about the detention of EU freight carriers by Belarus as a consequence to the closure of the border. The authorities in Vilnius on 2 December reported that the Belarusian government had stopped around a 1000 Lithuanian trucks on its territory and imposed non-refundable charges on them. In the opinion of MEPs, these actions are targeted, coordinated, hostile, and are part of a broader strategy for weakening the European Union, its associate States and NATO.
– The Belarusian government uses different methods, not only military stricte, to violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the associate States, so now this is the method of mass dispatching balloons in breach of the airspace of the Lithuanian State and of the European Union - stresses the politician. "The European Union must respond to specified actions by Belarus. The European Parliament calls on the European Commission, the European Council, to take action, to supply financial support to Lithuania, to make the infrastructure for protecting Lithuania's airspace, thus the European Union.
Euro MPs in the resolution pointed out that unmanned machinery was deployed in a controlled way and in 1 case even equipped with explosives.
"We gotta talk out about this, this cannot be a problem that is not visible to the public in Europe, due to the fact that in a minute another countries may become victims of akin provocations from the Belarusian regime" says Mariusz Kamiński. – From the point of view of the people of Paris or Madrid, this is happening far on the outskirts, but the effects can be highly tragic and affect the European Union as a whole.
The European Parliament besides calls for enhanced cooperation on the European Union-NATO line, both in terms of airspace safety and in strengthening its oversight, as well as countering hybrid threats and expanding the capacity to combat unmanned aircraft. It besides supports EU projects specified as the European Drone Initiative or east Flank Watch.
"The European Union is besides slow to respond to hybrid threats from the East, but it is possible to respond effectively. Unfortunately, EU action on migrants was very late, inconsistent. Now it's a bit of a turnaround. More and more it is seen that the problem of illegal migration is not a humanitarian problem, but a strictly political one, whose nonsubjective is chaos and which is part of a hybrid war. We are dealing with a hybrid war, not any smuggling activity, as suggested by the Belarusian government – stresses the associate of the European Parliament of Law and Justice.
The Euro-Lamentarians in the resolution called on associate States to impose additional sanctions on Belarusian officials, state and private entities and persons active in the production and usage of unmanned aircraft and any another hybrid action. At the same time, they recalled that the European Union does not recognise the legitimacy of the power of Mr Lukashenko.
