After the government closed the border with Belarus until the end of the month due to contraband balloons, Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Juozas Olekas expressed hope that once the set period expires, the border will reopen. He said that while the decision strikes a blow to the Belarusian regime, it also disrupts daily life in Lithuania, LRT reported.
“I believe that the measures currently taken will have a certain, though painful, effect (…), but despite the reaction of the Belarusian regime, I would like life to go on and the borders to reopen,” he said in an interview with Žinių Radijas. “The border closure indeed deters those who launch balloons, but it also complicates our normal life.”
He noted that the decision to close the border deprived residents of the opportunity to visit the graves of their relatives in Belarus and continues to disrupt the movement of trucks operating on international routes.
“I believe we all want the border to be open so that our citizens can travel to Belarus and carriers can move freely (…). We will strive to resolve this issue,” Olekas said.
He also criticized the actions of the previous government, which, in his view, failed to respond properly to the threat posed by weather balloons.
“The position of the previous authorities was: ‘nothing serious, let the balloons fly’ — this was recognized as smuggling, and apparently not enough measures were taken to counter it, which led to certain hybrid-type problems,” the speaker said.
Lithuania closed border crossings with Belarus until November 30 in response to the flight of weather balloons from Belarus that interfered with airport operations. The passage of certain categories of travelers is allowed only through the Medininkai checkpoint. In response, the Belarusian government banned trucks with Lithuanian registration from exiting through Poland and Latvia. According to the State Customs Committee, about 5,000 Lithuanian trucks and trailers are blocked in Belarus.
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