Belarus

On Wednesday, the Lithuanian Government approved temporary closure of two border crossing points with Belarus starting 18 August.

The State Border Guard Service (VSAT) announced that a fake image was posted online claiming that a mercenary from Wagner private military company had crossed the border from Belarus to Lithuania.

Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė believes there are grounds to consider introducing identical restrictions for Belarusian citizens as Russian nationals as a result of Wagner Group presence in Belarus.

Lithuanian news website delfi.lt has become inaccessible in Belarus, users in the neighbouring country have noticed.

More than a thousand Belarusian and Russian citizens have been recognised as posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security and have been banned from entering the country since the end-autumn last year, the Migration Department said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises Lithuanians not to travel to Belarus due to hostile activities and provocations of the Minsk regime against Lithuanian citizens. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mantas Adomėnas notes that Belarusian border guards pressure and blackmail travellers.

On Tuesday, Commander of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) General Rustamas Liubajevas met with President Gitanas Nausėda. Afterwards, speaking about the planned closure of two border crossing points at the border with Belarus, Liubajevas told reporters that this would contribute to enhancing th...

Lithuania is considering closing two border crossing points on the border with Belarus due to Wagner Group presence in the neighbouring country. President’s adviser Darius Urbonas says the move would not have economic impact.

Closing some of the border checkpoints is a question of time amid threats posed by the Wagner mercenary group’s presence in Belarus, says the parliament’s security committee chair. Full border closure would be considered if the situation escalates, he says.

On Thursday, President Gitanas Nausėda met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Suwałki to discuss the security situation on the border, the threats posed by the presence of the Wagner group in Belarus, the likelihood of provocations and the readiness to counter them, the presidency repo...

Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis urges travellers planning to go to Belarus to assess all the risks involved. His statement comes after helicopters from neighbouring Belarus violated Polish airspace on Tuesday.

The flights of Belarusian helicopters reportedly breaching Polish airspace may have been an attempt by the Lukashenko regime to test its western borders, the chair of the parliament’s security committee says.

National Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas refuses to say whether Lithuania would follow Poland’s example and consider mining its border due to the threat posed by Wagner mercenaries relocated to Belarus.

On 24-30 July, fighter aircraft conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States were scrambled three times to identify and escort aircraft of the Russian Federation flying in violation of flight rules in international airspace over the Baltic Sea and once to patrol the airspace border ...

The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) in the European Union has reached an agreement on new sanctions against Belarus, says Lithuania’s Ambassador Arnoldas Pranckevičius.

Although other countries share information with Lithuania, yet the role of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus is not entirely clear, president’s chief adviser on national security Kęstutis Budrys said in an interview to the radio station Žinių radijas on Tuesday.

Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas says that Lithuania’s geopolitical situation has not changed after the arrival of Russia’s private military company Wagner to Belarus.

A number of cars worth more than half a billion euros in total left Lithuania for Belarus last year, presumably ending up in Russia, a report by the LRT Investigation Team shows.

The Armed Forces of Lithuania are closely monitoring the security situation in the region and are ready to respond to potential threats to national security after Russia’s private military company Wagner arrived in Belarus and started holding exercises with Belarusian forces at the border with Polan...

On Wednesday in Vilnius, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda met with President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs. The heads of state discussed the security situation in the region among other matters.