{"id":513153,"date":"2026-01-28T17:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=513153"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:35:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T16:35:58","slug":"lithuania-threatens-to-restrict-border-crossings-if-weather-balloon-incidents-recur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/lithuania-threatens-to-restrict-border-crossings-if-weather-balloon-incidents-recur","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania Threatens to Restrict Border Crossings if Weather Balloon Incidents Recur"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Lithuania has sent Belarus a note of protest over violations of its airspace by smuggling weather balloons on the night of January 27\u201328, 2026. The note was handed to the charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires of the Belarusian embassy, who was summoned to Lithuania\u2019s Foreign Ministry today.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said these actions posed a threat to civil aviation safety, led three times to the suspension of operations at Vilnius International Airport, affected five civilian flights, and disrupted the travel plans of around 700 passengers.<\/p>\n<p>The Foreign Ministry stressed that such actions are considered a serious violation of international law and pose a threat to Lithuania\u2019s national security as well as to civil aviation safety.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry demanded that Belarus immediately take measures to prevent such violations and fulfill its international obligations to control its airspace and state border. The Lithuanian side emphasized that if similar incidents are repeated, it reserves the right to reinstate restrictions on border crossings or apply other measures to protect its airspace, ensure civil aviation safety, and prevent threats to national security.<\/p>\n<p>On the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the most massive incursion of weather balloons into Lithuania since the start of this year was recorded, with 42 balloons entering from Belarus. As a result, operations at Vilnius Airport were suspended. By morning, eight weather balloons had been found.<\/p>\n<p>Lithuanian Foreign Minister <b>K\u0119stutis Budrys<\/b> said that Lithuania would pass information to the United States to seek joint solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Lithuania\u2019s prime minister said that the problem of balloons from Belarus had been resolved with the help of the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithuania has sent Belarus a note of protest over violations of its airspace by smuggling weather balloons on the night of January 27\u201328, 2026. The note was handed to the charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires of the Belarusian embassy, who was summoned to Lithuania\u2019s Foreign Ministry today. The ministry said these actions posed a threat to civil aviation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":493944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/697a3af70d62a.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Lithuania Threatens to Restrict Border Crossings if Weather Balloon Incidents Recur"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513153","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\/513153","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\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}