Lithuania to Shut Down Two Out of Six Border Checkpoints with Belarus
The Lithuanian government is planning to halt operations at two out of the six control and border crossing points (CBP) on the Belarusian border starting from August 15. This information has been reported by the Lithuanian publication LRT.
In a written document, it is proposed to temporarily suspend the operations of the crossing points in Tveriačius and Šumskas "due to geopolitical circumstances and to mitigate potential threats."
Traffic will be redirected to the "Medininkai" border crossing point, the largest and most technologically equipped among the six border crossing points along the 680-kilometer border between Lithuania and Belarus. According to the ministry's data, this point is equipped with an X-ray control system, which is not present at the Tveriačius and Šumskas crossing points.
The decision to close the border crossing points was made in response to the movement of some Wagner mercenaries to Belarus. Rustamas Lyubayevas, the head of Lithuania's border service, expressed support for closing even more border crossing points.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of the Interior Arnoldas Abramavičius commented that closing all six border crossing points would be practically impossible.
"We would encounter quite significant organizational challenges to close all six crossing points at once," he said to journalists on Wednesday in Medininkai, a village near the border.
He informed that neighboring Poland is also closing border crossing points with Belarus.
"The Poles minimized the number of crossing points from four to one, the Latvians have two international crossing points with Belarus, and today we have six, two of which are possibly limited in capacity," he said.
According to Abramavičius, the interior ministers of the Baltic countries and Poland are planning to meet soon to discuss what to do if the border with Belarus needs to be completely closed.
Recently, Lithuanian and Polish leaders stated that there are currently about 4,000 Wagner fighters in Belarus, some of whom are stationed near the borders of both countries.
Recalling that access to assets worth over 103 million euros has been frozen in Lithuania due to international sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus in connection with their aggression against Ukraine.