{"id":493500,"date":"2025-10-26T13:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T10:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=493500"},"modified":"2025-10-26T17:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T14:22:23","slug":"lithuania-does-not-rule-out-longer-term-border-closure-with-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/lithuania-does-not-rule-out-longer-term-border-closure-with-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania Does Not Rule Out Longer-Term Border Closure With Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginien\u0117<\/strong>\u00a0has not ruled out that the border with Belarus may be closed for a longer period. She made the statement to reporters on Sunday following another incident involving weather balloons launched from Belarus, Delfi reported, citing Elta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had two sleepless nights. Admittedly, the situation yesterday was better than on Friday. I want to clarify that only a few weather balloons were recorded \u2014 radar displays show more reflections, but that doesn\u2019t mean the same number of balloons were actually flying. The drone incident was local \u2014 a person launched a drone within the airport area, and he was detained. It had nothing to do with the neighboring country,\u201d<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

She asked everyone to remain patient and noted that airports are closed for the safety of passengers.<\/p>\n

According to the prime minister, decisions were made even over the weekend, and on Sunday Interior Minister Vladislavas Kondratovi\u010dius<\/strong>\u00a0convened a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA technical meeting will take place, and tomorrow a decision should be presented to the commission. Work is in full swing. Last week we already decided to toughen criminal liability, so smugglers should not expect their responsibility to depend on the number of cigarettes. Cases will be consolidated, and airports will seek compensation for the damages caused,\u201d<\/i> Ruginien\u0117 said.<\/p>\n

She added that diplomatic missions are also involved, and warnings have been issued to Belarus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe possibility of a longer-term border closure is not excluded,\u201d<\/i> Ruginien\u0117 said.<\/p>\n

The decision to close the border must be made by the government. If approved, an extraordinary cabinet meeting will be held. Ruginien\u0117 noted that in such a case, the border would be closed indefinitely.<\/p>\n

She also explained why the weather balloons are not being shot down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is wartime and there is peacetime. In wartime, we are ready to shoot down any objects entering our airspace \u2014 all relevant structures are prepared for that. But we live in peacetime, so we must analyze and look for other solutions that would have fewer consequences,\u201d<\/i> she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are discussing the possibility of forcing weather balloons to land using kinetic measures, but even that could have serious consequences if a balloon were to fall from a great height onto a residential area,\u201d<\/i> the prime minister added.<\/p>\n

To help address the issue, the government plans to seek assistance from companies working with innovative technologies.<\/p>\n

On Saturday at 10:45 p.m., the Medininkai and \u0160al\u010dininkai border checkpoints were temporarily closed after balloons from Belarus entered Lithuanian airspace. Air traffic at Vilnius Airport was also temporarily suspended.<\/p>\n

This was the third such incident in recent days involving balloons from Belarus, leading to the suspension of Lithuanian airports and border crossings with Belarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginien\u0117\u00a0has not ruled out that the border with Belarus may be closed for a longer period. She made the statement to reporters on Sunday following another incident involving weather balloons launched from Belarus, Delfi reported, citing Elta. \u201cWe\u2019ve had two sleepless nights. Admittedly, the situation yesterday was better than on Friday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/68fe2ea430368.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Lithuania Does Not Rule Out Longer-Term Border Closure With Belarus"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}