Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda proposes permanent closure of the border with Belarus and restrictions on transit to Kaliningrad. The decision is to respond to the incursions of Belarusian balloons that disrupt Lithuanian airports.
The President's administration has identified fresh incidents as a hybrid attack on Lithuania. "The president sees incidents from fresh days and disruptions in airport operation as a hybrid attack on Lithuania, which requires both symmetrical and asymmetric responses" - she said in a statement.
Meeting on Tuesday
On Tuesday, the president will convene an interministerial gathering to discuss consequence options. The government is to propose concrete measures in the coming days, among which the permanent closure of the border with Belarus is being considered.
The balloon incidental paralyzed Lithuanian airports this week. According to polsatnews.pl, only Saturday the closure of Vilnius airport affected 3,500 passengers and 25 flights.
According to Wp.pl, LOT LO274 flight from London was diverted to Warsaw, and the position of flight LO773 depended on the reopening of airspace. Overall, air traffic has been disrupted 3 times this week due to specified incidents.
Cigarette smuggling
Belarusian weather balloons have become 1 of the methods of smuggling cigarettes. According to banker.pl, specified actions are to be allowed by Aleksander Lukashenka, the Kremlin's ally in the war against Ukraine.
Lithuania has temporarily closed the border with Belarus respective times in consequence to further incidents. The president is now considering permanent solutions that could importantly affect the transit to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Sources used: "PAP", "polsatnews.pl", "wp.pl", "bankier.pl" Note: This article was created utilizing Artificial Intelligence (SI).
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