 "Lithuania shuts 2 airports and border crossings with Belarus after weather balloon incursion")
On Friday, Lithuania closed two of its biggest airports and shut crossings on its border with Belarus after a mysterious helium balloon drifted into its territory. This was the third such occurrence in the Baltic state in just this month.
In recent weeks, aviation bodies of European nations have repeatedly been thrown into chaos due to drone sightings and other air incursions from Russia. This included shutting down airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region. On Friday, Lithuania’s Vilnius and Kaunas airports were closed for safety reasons until 2 am local time on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the authorities noted that the Baltic nation’s border crossings with Belarus will remain shut until Sunday. Lithuania, a European Union member, has said smugglers use the balloons to send Belarusian cigarettes into the EU, where tobacco products are more expensive.
Vilinius went on to blame Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, for not stopping the illegal practice. “The national security commission will meet next week to assess … what can be done short-term that would be painful to the smugglers and to Lukashenko’s regime, which allows them to thrive,” Lithuania’s prime minister, Inga Ruginiene, said in a statement.
Barrage of balloons enters Lithuanian territory
Lithuania’s national crisis management centre said “tens of balloons” had been detected by radar on Friday. It is pertinent to note that the Vilnius airport also closed on Tuesday and on 5 October, when 25 balloons crossed into Lithuanian airspace.
Similar balloons also landed on Lithuanian soil earlier this year, including one spotted at the airport. Border guards in the Baltic nation have had the right to shoot these balloons since last year. What is concerning is the fact that a total of 966 balloons entered Lithuania last year, and there have been more than 500 so far this year, according to official data published this month.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsMeanwhile, neighbouring Poland has had more than 100 similar incidents this year, according to border police. In the midst of all this, Lithuania said that two Russian planes entered its airspace on Thursday. They were a Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker flying from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
In response to the incursion, Nato scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoons from its air patrol mission in the Baltic. According to The Guardian, the Russian planes went 700 meters into the Lithuanian airspace and left after 18 seconds. The foreign ministry in Vilnius said it had summoned the charge d’affaires from the Russian embassy and issued a “strong protest”.
Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry denied that such an incursion had taken place. Lithuania is a member of the EU and Nato. Violations of its airspace are a sensitive issue after several suspected Russian drones crossed into its territory from Belarus in July, one of them even carrying explosives.
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