Cigarette-smuggling balloons force closure of Lithuanian airport

Summary

Dozens of balloons used by smugglers to transport cigarettes from Belarus into Lithuania forced the temporary closure of Vilnius airport overnight.The Lithuanian capital’s airport was closed from 11pm local time on Tuesday to 6.30am on Wednesday. Smugglers use the balloons to send Belarusian cigarettes into the European Union, where tobacco products are more expensive.The head of Lithuania’s national crisis management centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, described the latest balloon incursion as “the most intense this year”. The decision to suspend flights was made “to ensure the safety of civil aviation”, he was quoted as saying by the Baltic news agency BNS.Traffic was stopped for the same reason at two land border crossings between Lithuania and Belarus overnight before reopening on Wednesday, Lithuanian border guards said.Lithuania’s prime minister, Inga Ruginienė, called on the authorities in Minsk to cooperate to prevent similar incidents in the future. She urged Belarus to adopt “a responsible approach to these incidents, irrespective of our political relations”.Ruginienė said: “It’s not normal that so many balloons are crossing our border and that we have to intercept them to keep them away from our strategic sites and installations.”A similar incident disrupted the operation of Vilnius airport on 5 October, when 25 balloons crossed into Lithuanian airspace.Similar balloons landed earlier this year on Lithuanian soil, including at the airport, and border guards have had the right to shoot them down since last year.A total of 966 balloons entered Lithuania last year and there have been more than 500 so far this year, according to official data published this month.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Headlines EuropeA digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week dayPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account...