The situation at the border with Belarus is deteriorating, with an increasing number of intrusions by smuggling balloons being flown into Lithuanian airspace, European Commission President von der Leyen said on Monday.
We are preparing additional sanctions (against the regime of leader Aleksandr Lukashenko) through our sanctions program.
This weekend, the airport in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius was forced to suspend operations after balloons were believed to have headed towards the airport. The border with Belarus was closed last week after balloons intruded into Lithuanian airspace.
Thousands of trucks from Lithuania were stranded in Belarus after Minsk decided to close the borders to the EU country.
Belarus, in turn, chose to summon Lithuania's ambassador to express its diplomatic dissatisfaction over a previous incident involving a possible drone intrusion.
