Lithuanian Security Officials Say the Country Should Rely on Its Own Capabilities to Counter Weather Balloons

Amid the renewed arrival of weather balloons from Belarus and the triple suspension of operations at Vilnius Airport, Lithuanian intelligence says it has not recorded any changes in the policy of the Minsk regime on this issue. This was stated by the director of the Department of State Security (DSS), Remigijus Bridikis, according to LRT.

“Our data do not show changes compared to what we seemed to be talking about a few weeks ago. We do not see any specific activity being organised by our neighbours — but that does not mean it does not exist,” he told journalists today at the Seimas.

According to Bridikis, after talks between the Belarusian and American sides, the regime attempted to create the appearance of combating weather balloons. Nevertheless, in the view of the DSS chief, the Lithuanian side should rely more on its own capabilities.

“I am more inclined to trust the investigations and efforts currently being carried out by our agencies, (…) how we internally will be able to cope and identify who is collecting these balloons here and what the network looks like. Perhaps we should focus more on our capacities, our goal, our cohesion, rather than on what the regime there is doing, because the conditions, as I keep saying, have not changed on the part of the regime. They have their own interests, and those interests have probably not gone anywhere,” he said.

On Tuesday night into Wednesday, the largest incursion of weather balloons into Lithuania since the beginning of this year was recorded — 42 balloons entered from Belarus. As a result, operations at Vilnius Airport were suspended. By morning, eight weather balloons had been found.

Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Lithuania would pass the information to the United States in order to seek joint solutions.

Earlier, Lithuania’s prime minister said the problem of balloons from Belarus had been resolved with the help of the United States.

Lithuanian authorities have not ruled out the possibility of restricting border crossings in the event of repeated incidents involving weather balloons.