May 13, Pozirk. Vilnius International Airport suspended operations for about one hour early this morning due to a “hybrid attack from Belarus,” after detecting navigation markers that looked like weather balloons, Delfi reports.
Cigarette smugglers from Belarus use these balloons to transport illicit goods across the border.
Restrictions affected two flights, causing inconvenience to 128 passengers. One flight was diverted to Copenhagen, while the other was canceled. Disruptions in the flight schedule may also cause delays throughout the day, the report said.
This marks the ninth disruption to airport operations caused by balloon-related incidents this year. The most recent incident dates back to April 8.
Tensions between Belarus and Lithuania over cigarette-smuggling balloons have been rising since mid-October, forcing Lithuanian authorities to close the border and suspend operations at Vilnius International Airport, located close to the Belarusian border.
Vilnius declared an “extreme situation,” a low-level emergency, on December 9 in response to what it called “a hybrid attack from Belarus.”
Alaksandar Lukašenka, however, played down Vilnius’s concerns in mid-March, claiming that weather balloons could not affect airport operations. He also told state media journalists that police had arrested five persons suspected of involvement in smuggling cigarettes by air.
The remarks came a day after Łukašenka held talks with John Coale, US special envoy for Belarus, who negotiated the release of 250 imprisoned Belarusian dissidents and raised Lithuania’s concerns over cigarette smuggling.
Vilnius has repeatedly tied any potential engagement with Minsk to a halt in the ongoing balloon incursions, among other conditions.
