Lithuania Calls for New EU Sanctions on Belarus After Balloon Smuggling Incidents
Lithuania's foreign minister urges the EU to impose new sanctions on Belarus following recent balloon incursions used for smuggling. The incidents highlight ongoing hybrid threats and the need for a coordinated response within the EU and NATO.
Key facts
- Lithuania closed its border with Belarus after balloon incursions used for smuggling.
- Calls for synchronized EU sanctions against Belarus and Russia are increasing.
- The incidents are part of broader hybrid warfare tactics employed by Belarus.
2 minute read
Lithuania is pressing the EU to tighten sanctions on Belarus, warning that the recent wave of slow, car-sized balloons drifting across its border is more than just cigarette smuggling — it’s a hybrid tactic testing Europe’s airspace and regulatory seams.
Dozens of these balloons, allegedly launched from Belarus, have crossed into Lithuanian airspace in recent days, grounding flights and prompting military responses. Vilnius closed nearly all border traffic and accused Minsk of using criminal networks as proxies to probe EU defences. While the inflatables are ostensibly used to ferry cheap cigarettes, officials argue they serve a broader purpose: exposing how ill-prepared Europe remains for grey-zone tactics that sit between crime and state aggression.
“We have to expand the Belarusian sanctions regime, including hybrid activities as one of the reasons,” said Kęstutis Budrys, Lithuania’s national security adviser, in an interview with POLITICO. “We have to synchronize sanctions against Russia and Belarus, especially on aviation.”
Lithuania wants Brussels to go beyond the symbolic and hit Minsk where it hurts — by restricting aviation supply chains, leasing, insurance, and maintenance links that still allow Belarus and Russia to skirt existing measures. The concern is that Belarus has become a backdoor hub for components and parts Moscow can no longer import directly.
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė called the balloon incursions part of a coordinated attack aimed at destabilizing the EU’s eastern flank, echoing tactics previously seen with orchestrated migrant flows at the border.
European leaders backed Lithuania’s call for action. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the incursions as a “hybrid threat” and urged faster progress on joint defence programs like the “Eastern Flank Watch” and the EU’s upcoming drone defence initiative. European Council President António Costa added that “these hybrid activities must stop” and pledged continued pressure on Belarus for its complicity in Russia’s war.
Experts in Vilnius argue that to close these loopholes, the EU needs common rules of engagement for “low and slow” intrusions, a shared evidentiary standard for state involvement, and integrated border sensing systems. They recommend expanding sanctions to logistics firms and dual-use suppliers, while Frontex coordinates forensics and surveillance efforts along the external Schengen border.
At the civil-military interface, NATO’s Baltic air policing missions may soon incorporate these scenarios, refining procedures for identifying and responding to low-altitude aerial threats.
For Lithuania, the message is clear: hybrid provocations — however small or improvised — are designed to exploit the cracks in Europe’s defences. The response, Vilnius insists, must be coordinated, persistent, and backed by real consequences.
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