Yesterday’s disruption at Vilnius Airport affected a flight carrying senior Lithuanian officials. The airport of the Lithuanian capital was closed for more than an hour.
On board the flight from Brussels were the minister of foreign affairs, Kęstutis Budrys, and EU commissioner Andrius Kubilius.
“The plane that EU Commissioner Andrius Kubilius and I were on this evening, on our journey back from Brussels, had trouble reaching Vilnius Airport due to smuggling balloons coming from Belarus & posing a threat to the safety of civil aviation.
Belarus continues its hybrid attacks against Lithuania and the EU, further escalating the situation.
The message from the EU to Lukashenko’s regime must be clear: hybrid attacks against EU member states will not be tolerated and will trigger a direct and painful response — stricter sanctions. The faster they are implemented, the better.” Budrys wrote on X.
According to a Flightradar track published by the minister, the aircraft was forced to circle for some time over the Kaunas area before being cleared to proceed for landing at Vilnius Airport.