Lithuania closes Belarus border indefinitely after repeated airspace violations by balloons

Lithuania has closed all border crossings with Belarus indefinitely after balloons launched from Belarus violated its airspace for the third consecutive night, forcing multiple airport shutdowns.

Operations at Vilnius International Airport were suspended for several hours overnight on Oct. 26–27 after balloons were detected flying toward the airport — the fourth such disruption in a week. Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center (NKVC) announced that the move to close the border was taken in response to these recurring incidents.

President Gitanas Naus?da described the airspace intrusions as a “hybrid attack” on Lithuania, calling for both symmetrical and asymmetrical countermeasures, including restrictions on transit from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

Lithuanian authorities say the balloons, often carrying contraband cigarettes, are part of ongoing smuggling operations from Belarus — though officials also accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of deliberately failing to prevent the launches.

In recent weeks, similar incursions have caused temporary shutdowns at Vilnius and Kaunas airports, as well as repeated closures of border checkpoints. Lithuania, which shares a 680-km frontier with Belarus and borders Kaliningrad, has been on heightened alert following a series of drone and balloon incidents across Eastern Europe linked to suspected Russian hybrid operations.