Overview
- Lithuania temporarily shut most crossings with Belarus with limited exceptions and will weigh an open-ended closure at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
- Authorities said helium balloons violating Lithuanian airspace will be downed after recent sightings forced a second straight day of flight suspensions to Vilnius.
- Leaders framed the incidents as hybrid attacks rather than isolated smuggling and said consultations under NATO’s Article 4 remain possible.
- The European Commission said it is in contact with national and aviation authorities, and Ursula von der Leyen expressed solidarity with Lithuania.
- Belarus criticized the closure as a provocation, while opposition figures in exile allege state-linked tobacco firms tied to oligarch Alyaksei Aleksin drive the smuggling.