The EU is drawing up new sanctions against the government of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, which it accuses of a “hybrid” campaign against neighbouring Lithuania, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Monday.
Lithuania shut its border with Belarus in October after dozens of balloons loaded with illegal cigarettes entered its airspace, forcing several airports to close and inflaming tensions between the two countries.
“The situation at the border with Belarus is worsening, with the growing incursions of smuggling balloons into Lithuania’s airspace,” the European Commission chief wrote on X following talks with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
“Such hybrid attack by the Lukashenka regime is completely unacceptable. Lithuania continues to have our full solidarity,” von der Leyen said, adding: “We are preparing further measures under our sanctions regime.”
The border closure in October left thousands of Lithuanian trucks trapped in Belarus. Some are still stuck there, and Vilnius has accused Minsk of “blackmail” over millions of euros in stranded goods.
The EU’s diplomatic arm separately said it had summoned Belarus’s envoy Monday over “hybrid actions emanating from the Belarusian territory and constituting a threat to the EU”, including the “unacceptable situation” of the stranded trucks.
The EU has imposed repeated sanctions on Minsk since 2020 — including targeting Lukashenko and his family — for the brutal repression of dissent and support of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The long-serving strongman is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who allowed Moscow to use his country as a launchpad for its 2022 invasion.
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