Frontline NATO ally says Belarus continues to send balloons

Balloons arriving from Belarus prompted Lithuanian authorities to close local airports for the third night in a row.

Authorities said in a statement Sunday evening that the airspace around Vilnius airport had been temporarily suspended, affecting some 47 flights between 9:42 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. the next morning.

“According to initial information, the decision regarding airspace restrictions was taken due to balloons flying in the direction of Vilnius airport,” the statement said.

The incident is the latest in a series of reports this week from NATO member Lithuania that helium-filled balloons entered its territory from the Belarusian border.

In a statement released on Saturday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said a “large group of smuggled weather balloons” had been launched from Belarus to her country.

As a result, another airport, Kaunas, had to be closed, she explained.

The prime minister added that the balloons were likely used for cigarette smuggling, but blamed Russia-aligned Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for letting them “go wild.”

In a separate statement on Sunday, Rugiene said Lithuania was temporarily closing its borders with Belarus as its security council met on Monday to discuss next steps.

Lithuania has been dealing with balloons from Belarus for some time now. In September 2024, border officials said 250 balloons crossed the country in a single month.

However, the country has sounded the alarm over such incidents more frequently over the past year, as the Baltic states report repeated airspace violations by Russia, which counts Belarus among its closest allies.

Lithuanian authorities said the first balloons this week had started appearing a few days earlier and had already led to an early closure of the airport. On Wednesday, local authorities released a statement claiming to have detected “several hundred markers” in a single night that could be contraband balloons.

These are often equipped with GPS trackers and SIM cards which allow their cargo to be tracked, the press release specifies.

“This year, more than 100 people have been arrested for air smuggling, 20 of whom have already been convicted,” the statement added.

The release also calls on technology companies and defense contractors to come up with solutions to track and destroy these balloons.

More broadly, Europe’s NATO is on edge after a series of drone incursions over Poland in September, many of which involved Russian gerberas flying over Belarus.

Other NATO allies, such as Denmark, have reported drone incursions over their airports in the weeks since.

Balloon incursions have also occurred elsewhere. In the summer of 2024, South Korea accused North Korea of ​​floating hundreds of trash-filled balloons, spreading waste across the greater Seoul area, as a gray war tactic.

The press team at Lukashenko’s office did not respond to a request for comment sent outside local business hours by Business Insider.