Name: Lithuania declares emergency situation over Belarus balloons | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-12-16T17:05:23.000Z
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In recent months, talk of a hybrid war waged by Russia and Europe has grown louder, with a pattern of sabotage attacks that governments and intelligence agencies have linked to Moscow.

Lithuania has already dealt with a major parcel parcel bomb plot and arson attacks, but

転換語

the government has now declared an emergency situation because of what they call a deliberate attempt to cause chaos by Russia's closest ally, Ben, Belarus.

Our Eastern Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford reports from Vilnius.

Every night now, Lithuania's military head out on patrol.

This is the border zone with Belarus and the soldiers are looking for signs of the latest hostile activity by their neighbour.

Smugglers, balloons dangling cigarettes being launched at Lithuania in waves.

They're causing massive disruption to air traffic.

So the military police are stopping and searching, trying to smash the smuggling gangs and block the balloons, because Lithuania believes this is part of a hybrid war by Russia's closest ally, Belarus.

This woman suspects it's just smugglers, but others I spoke to were nervous.

The military police here have been checking every single car that's come through.

We're just 7km now from the Belorussian border and they're taking this situation really seriously.

Belarus is instrumentalizing international organized crime.

The foreign Minister told me the balloons were targeting the airport here.

You have a border with us, we can cause you huge problems with this border.

This is what they are doing is really touching the military security field and therefore we want to prevent from military escalation the situation.

The authoritarian leader of Belarus calls the claims foolish, but

Alexander Lukashenko has so much control and he has form.

Four years ago, Belarus was bringing migrants to its western border in big numbers, helping them into the eu, provoking a crisis.

Now it's an airport that's under pressure.

they have closed the airspace completely here 15 times since October, forcing diversions, causing chaos.

I think it's a provocation from their government, also from the Russian government, because they're basically testing the limits of NATO.

Look, how do we protect against these kind of things?

It is, it is hybrid attack, and not the first one.

We had the immigrants coming from that side.

That's why Europe's eastern border now looks like this.

Only the balloons have been sailing over in their hundreds.