There are concerns that the Moscow-allied Belarusian state has become a hub for circumventing restrictions on plane parts and other key components that the Kremlin struggles to obtain due to massive sanctions imposed by the EU and its Western partners.
At the same time, Budrys went on, the EU needs to “get serious” on plans to tariff Belarus’ remaining exports to the bloc, calling for punitive new levies “on Belarusian exports and goods and also on Russian.”
According to the Lithuanian government, the balloon incursions are a tactic in its “hybrid war” against the West, which has for years also seen thousands of would-be migrants brought in and trafficked to the border to try and destabilize the Baltic countries and Poland.
Dozens of balloons detected in Lithuania’s airspace in recent days have seen flights grounded and the military ordered to shoot down foreign objects. Ostensibly sent by smugglers trying to bring cheap cigarettes into the EU, Lithuania’s prime minister said Monday the inflatables are part of a coordinated attack on the country and has ordered the border closed to almost all traffic.
Lithuania, Budrys said, will now work with NATO and the EU to determine a joint response and expects not just political support “but also very concrete measures against the Belarusian regime, sending them the clear message that it won’t be tolerated when they weaponize now yet again another instrument against us.”
A string of warplane incursions and drones flying across EU airspace in previous months sparked efforts to agree a bloc-wide air defense program initially dubbed a “drone wall” — however, the plans failed to garner immediate support and work is ongoing to refine longer-term projects to boost joint capabilities. Lithuania and other frontier countries have been urging faster action.