Lithuania closes airports and border crossings in Belarus after balloon sightings | Aviation news

The decision to close the airports and borders of Vilnius and Kaunas comes after helium balloons drifted into the country’s territory.

NATO member Lithuania has closed its two largest airports and border crossings on the border with Belarus after helium weather balloons drifted into its territory, the third such incident in the Baltic nation this month.

European aviation has been repeatedly thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and other air attacks, including on airports in Copenhagen, Munich and the Baltic region.

Vilnius and Kaunas airports were closed until 2 a.m. (11 p.m. GMT) on Friday for security reasons, while border crossings with Belarus will remain closed until Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Lithuania has said balloons are being sent by smugglers carrying smuggled cigarettes, but it has also blamed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for failing to stop the practice.

“The National Security Committee will meet next week to assess… what can be done in the short term that would be painful for the smugglers and for Lukashenko’s regime, allowing them to prosper,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said in a statement.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said on Friday that “dozens of balloons” had been detected by radar.

Vilnius airport closed on Tuesday this week and also on October 5 when smuggling balloons entered the capital’s airspace, authorities said.

The incident comes after two Russian military planes briefly entered Lithuanian airspace in what appeared to be a novelty provocation from Moscow.

Lithuania’s armed forces said in a statement that the two planes may have been conducting refueling exercises in the neighboring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad when they flew 700 meters into the country at 6pm local time (3pm GMT) on Thursday.

“This is a blatant violation of international law and the territorial integrity of Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said of X in response to that raid, adding that his country would call on representatives of the Russian embassy to protest against reckless and dangerous behavior.

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense denied that the raid had taken place.

It said the flights were operated “in strict compliance” with the rules and “did not deviate from their route or violate the borders of other states”.

Russian aircraft and drones have also reportedly violated airspace in Estonia and Poland in recent weeks.

The events have heightened fears that Russia’s Putin could test NATO’s defensive reflexes.