{"id":202761,"date":"2026-09-07T22:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T19:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/202761\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T23:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:48:15","slug":"eu-foreign-affairs-chief-sees-grounds-to-believe-minsk-helps-build-clandestine-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/202761\/","title":{"rendered":"EU foreign affairs chief sees grounds to believe Minsk helps build clandestine tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n (multimedia.europarl.europa.eu)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

September 7, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> The construction of clandestine tunnels through which undocumented third-country foreigners enter Lithuania via Belarus is carried out with the support of the regime in Minsk, Kaja Kallas, the European Union\u2019s foreign affairs chief, has said in Vilnius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official made this statement at a joint briefing with Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevi\u010dius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Alaksandar] \u0141uka\u0161enka has made Belarus a platform of Russia’s war,\u201d the European External Action Service\u00a0(EEAS)\u00a0quoted her as saying. \u201cHis regime also threatens its European neighbours and weaponizes illegal migration against them. The sophistication of smuggling tunnels points to organized support. There are strong indications that Minsk has been lending a hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kallas also stressed the need to strengthen European defense and protect democracies from external interference and hybrid threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official also announced that she plans to visit the Padvarionys frontier station on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border on September 8, stressing that Lithuania’s border security is a shared European responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year,\u00a0Lithuania\u2019s\u00a0State Border Guard Service\u00a0has reported on the discovery of 12 clandestine underground tunnel leading from Belarus into the EU. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underground tunnels are also used for irregular crossings of the Belarusian-Latvian border. These passages are built with the knowledge of Belarusian authorities, General Guntis Puj\u0101ts, chief of the Latvian State Border Guard said in late August. Latvia has discovered two such tunnels so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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