Lithuania weighs suspending passenger routes to Russia and Belarus
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As Latvia moves to suspend regular passenger services to Russia and Belarus, Lithuania’s interior minister said that adopting a similar measure is worth considering in response to growing security threats from Belarus.
“This could be one of the measures,” Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič told BNS. “The question is how it would affect the Belarusian regime and whether it would have any real impact, or instead only fuel hostility toward the European Union and other countries.”
“I believe it is definitely worth considering; we will have to see how this develops,” he added.
Kondratovič said he plans to discuss the issue with his Latvian and Polish counterparts during meetings in Brussels this week, emphasising that any decision should be coordinated regionally.
Latvia’s Transport Ministry is already drafting a cabinet resolution to suspend regular routes to Belarus and Russia. Transport Minister Atis Švinka said the proposal is based on security concerns and could be reviewed if the situation changes.
Under the plan, regular passenger bus services would be halted, and existing carrier permits would be revoked or not renewed, Švinka said.
Lithuania currently has 24 regular routes with Belarus, with about 25 daily departures in each direction via open border crossings, according to Virginijus Čiškauskas of the Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration.
Rising concerns over balloon-based smuggling
Lithuania has recently intensified efforts to counter cigarette smuggling from Belarus using weather balloons. The government closed the Belarusian border for several weeks in late October due to the balloon threat and is now considering declaring a state-level emergency.
Weather balloons launched by smugglers have disrupted operations at Vilnius Airport more than a dozen times in recent months and once at Kaunas Airport.
The Interior Ministry said 599 smuggling balloons and 197 drones have entered Lithuanian airspace so far this year, disrupting 320 flights, affecting 47,000 passengers and causing nearly 60 hours of airport closures.
