Entry into Lithuania continues to be permitted for some travelers, including EU nationals and humanitarian visa holders.
Published October 29, 2025
Lithuania has been fortifying its border with Belarus for a month after a wave of balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes entered its airspace.
Lithuania’s Cabinet decided on Wednesday to continue the suspension of traffic at Sarcininkai intersection in the southeast until the end of November, while significantly restricting traffic at Medininkai intersection, the only other intersection near the capital Vilnius, BNS news agency reported.
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Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said the move would “send a clear message to our less friendly neighbors” about the balloon intrusion that disrupted air traffic at Vilnius airport last weekend and prompted the closure of two intersections in the first place.
Diplomats, Lithuanian nationals, European Union and NATO member states and their families, and foreigners with a valid Lithuanian permit will continue to be allowed to enter Lithuania through Medininkai, BNS reported. This exemption also applies to humanitarian visa holders.
Passenger trains between Belarus and Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania, will not be affected. Lithuanian officials say Russians with transit documents that allow them to travel to Kaliningrad will still be able to cross at Medininkai.
Prime Minister Inga Luginien said the restrictive measures could be extended. “We cannot afford not to respond to a hybrid attack on Lithuania,” she told reporters.
The measure will primarily affect the thousands of Belarusian workers who regularly travel between the two countries, but Lithuanian companies that continue to do business with Minsk will also be affected, Luginien said.
“Mad Scam”
Belarus has condemned Lithuania’s initial border closure after last week’s balloon incident and called on neighboring countries to first look for accomplices within their own borders.
“Lithuanian politicians decided to take advantage of this situation, shift all responsibility on Belarus and hide within Lithuania their inability (or unwillingness?) to find the smugglers’ contractors,” the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko added: “If balloons filled with cigarettes are flying there, then they will have to resolve the issue on their side,” adding that his country would apologize if Belarus’ involvement was revealed.
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member on the eastern side of the Western alliance, believes the balloon destruction was a deliberate act of sabotage by Russia-aligned Belarus.
Concerns have been heightened by repeated drone incursions into NATO airspace, which reached an unprecedented scale last month. Some European officials have described the incident as Russia testing NATO’s response, raising questions about how prepared the alliance is against Russia.
In Belgium, Defense Minister Theo Franken said an investigation was underway after “several drones were again spotted” over a military base in March-en-Famenne in the country’s east between Tuesday and Wednesday night.
