More than 20 balloons used to smuggle counterfeit cigarettes from Belarus to Lithuania disrupted operations at Vilnius airport overnight and affected around 30 flights, local authorities said Sunday.
EU and NATO member Lithuania is sensitive to airspace violations following two incidents in July involving Russian drones that came from neighbouring Belarus. One of the drones was carrying explosives.
“Flights at Vilnius airport were disrupted from 22:15 pm (1915 GMT) on Saturday until 4:40 am on Sunday,” Darius Buta, national crisis management centre representative, told AFP.
He said around 30 flights were delayed, cancelled or diverted.
Around 25 balloons violated Lithuanian airspace, including two near Vilnius airport, he said, adding that 11 had been discovered by Sunday morning.
Similar balloons had landed in Lithuania earlier this year, including at the airport, and border guards have had the right to shoot them down since 2024.
Smugglers use weather balloons to transport Belarusian cigarette packets that are then sold in the European Union, where tobacco is more expensive.
Lithuania recorded 966 such balloons into the country last year and 544 this year, Buta said.
“The use of drones and weather balloons by smugglers is considered a criminal activity, but not an act of sabotage or a provocation,” Buta said.
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