Lithuania and Belarus accuse each other of violating the airspace

On Monday, Lithuania and Belarus accused each other of violating the airspace. Lithuania reported another sighting of hot air balloons near Vilnius airport, while Belarus accused its neighbor of launching a reconnaissance drone. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus summoned the charge d'affaires of Lithuania and announced that a small unmanned aerial vehicle with a camera had crashed the previous day in the northwestern city of Grodno. Belarusian authorities claim that the drone dropped "extremist printed materials" and was launched from the Lithuanian village of Kapchamyestis, which is located near the border crossing between Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. Lithuanian authorities deny allegations that they sent a reconnaissance drone into Belarusian airspace. Grodno is located 14-15 km from the Polish border and 25 km from the Lithuanian border. Lithuania informed the European Commission on Monday that Vilnius airport was temporarily closed again on Saturday due to the presence of hot air balloons nearby. The Lithuanian authorities claim that these weather balloons are used by smugglers to drop cigarettes into Lithuania and that the Belarusian authorities are deliberately turning a blind eye to this. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on the X social network that the number of balloons invading Lithuania's airspace from Belarus is increasing. "Such hybrid attacks by the Lukashenko regime are absolutely unacceptable," wrote Ursula von der Leyen.