Lithuania has decided to shoot down balloons flying from Belarus, as well as to close the border with the country indefinitely.
This is reported by LRT.
The State Border Guard Service (VSAT) reported that in response to the launch of balloons, border crossings with Belarus are being closed. Due to repeated incidents on Monday, Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė convened a meeting of the National Security Commission.
Recall that on the evening of October 26, Vilnius Airport again temporarily suspended operations due to the appearance of balloons approaching the flight zone. This is the fourth such incident in the Lithuanian capital within a week.
According to the Lithuanian Prime Minister, during the meeting it is planned to seek long-term measures to resolve the crisis. She did not rule out that a decision will be made on Monday to close the Medininkė and Šalčininkai border crossings with Belarus for a long period.
"A whole action plan has been developed to combat illegal entry, and as is known, people were detained last week, and these actions will only intensify," Ruginienė said.
According to her, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is involved in managing the situation. First of all, together with the EU, the ministry will coordinate a package of additional sanctions against Belarus.
"This will be done in the near future. Active negotiations and communication are also underway with our allies and neighbors Poland and Latvia. Any of our actions are also coordinated with them, we are not a separate state, we are part of NATO and the EU. Everything we do is coordinated with them," Ruginienė said.
According to the Prime Minister, the government has already prepared a decision to close the border with Belarus for an indefinite period. However, there will be certain exceptions.
"This means that diplomats, diplomatic mail will be able to move, and our citizens and EU citizens will be able to get to us from Belarus, but all other traffic will be closed. In this way, we are sending a signal to Belarus and saying that no hybrid attack will be tolerated here, we will take the strictest measures to stop such attacks," she explained.
According to her, from Monday the military will take "all measures" necessary to stop the balloons. In particular, shock weapons to shoot them down.
"In this way, we are sending a signal that we are ready to take even the strictest measures when our airspace is violated," Ruginienė said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, at least 25 balloons violated Lithuanian airspace on October 4. CNN reported that the balloons were smuggling cigarettes.
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