Lithuania closed airports and the border with Belarus due to the invasion of dozens of balloons

“ Lithuania resorted to extraordinary security measures on Saturday night, closing the country’s two largest airports and checkpoints on the border with Belarus. The reason was a massive invasion of its airspace by helium weather balloons, which became the third such incident in the last month. Source: Reuters Details: Vilnius and Kaunas airports were reportedly closed until 2 a.m. for security reasons. At the same time, border crossings with Belarus will remain closed until noon on Sunday. According to the National Crisis Management Center of Lithuania, radars detected “dozens of balloons” crossing the border on Friday. Officially, the Lithuanian authorities say that balloons are used by smugglers to transport cigarettes. However, Vilnius also places political responsibility on the regime of Oleksandr Lukashenka, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, accusing him of deliberately failing to prevent this illegal activity. “The National Security Commission will meet next week and assess what can be done in the near future to make it painful for the smugglers and for the Lukashenka regime, which allows them to flourish,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said. Background: Vilnius airport was already closed for similar reasons this Tuesday, as well as on October 5. On October 23, two Russian planes from the Kaliningrad region invaded the airspace of Lithuania.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua