Better control

Lithuania closes further border crossings with Belarus

(Bild: AP)

Lithuania has temporarily closed two more border crossings with neighboring Belarus for security reasons. Following a decision by the government of the Baltic EU and NATO country, the two checkpoints at Lavoriskes and Raigardas will be closed from Friday. 

This means that only two of the six crossing points along the almost 680-kilometer border between Lithuania and authoritarian Belarus will remain open.

The government in Vilnius had already closed the Sumskas and Tverecius crossings in the summer of 2023. This means that only the Medininkai and Salcininkai checkpoints will remain open, at which it will no longer be possible for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the border.

Passenger boarding and disembarking at the railroad border checkpoints in Kena and Kybartai, where transit trains between Russia and the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad stop via Lithuania, will also be restricted.

This is intended to ensure better control of the flow of goods, transportation and people across the border. The attempted import and export of sanctioned goods and smuggling should also be curbed in this way.

"Iron curtains" erected
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was critical of the closure of the border crossings. This would erect "iron curtains", said the politician living in exile in Lithuania. This was rejected by the government in Vilnius. Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite emphasized that Lithuania would continue to keep a humanitarian corridor open for "people fleeing the regime".