The balloons, which in some cases are reported to have weighed up to 50–60 kilograms and can fly just over a mile, have repeatedly forced the airport in the capital Vilnius to close during the autumn.
Lithuania claims that the balloons are deliberately sent to disrupt Lithuanian airspace and thus constitute an attack on civil aviation, and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen threatened this week to target Belarus with sanctions after what she calls “hybrid attacks.”
At the end of October, Lithuania closed the border with Belarus. Ruginiene said at the time that intruding balloons would be shot down.
According to analysts, smugglers use weather balloons to transport Belarusian cigarettes, which are then sold in the EU, where tobacco is more expensive. But Lithuania has also leveled accusations at Russia, which it says is behind the “hybrid psychological operations.”
