{"id":53194,"date":"2025-10-27T13:13:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/lithuania-accuses-belarus-russia-of-deliberate-escalation-of-hybrid-warfare-as-balloons-shut-down-airport\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T13:13:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:13:43","slug":"lithuania-accuses-belarus-russia-of-deliberate-escalation-of-hybrid-warfare-as-balloons-shut-down-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/lithuania-accuses-belarus-russia-of-deliberate-escalation-of-hybrid-warfare-as-balloons-shut-down-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania accuses Belarus, Russia of &#8220;deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare&#8221; as balloons shut down airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>The government of Lithuania, which is a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, said Monday that it will start shooting down unidentified balloons that enter the country&#8217;s airspace, after a number of them allegedly launched from neighboring Belarus forced the repeated closure of a major airport.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene warned Monday that any further balloons detected would be shot down after operations at Vilnius International Airport, which serves the capital city, were halted a total of four times last week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today we have decided to take the strictest measures, there is no other way,&#8221; Ruginiene told journalists, according to Lithuanian public broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lrt.lt\/naujienos\/lietuvoje\/2\/2727095\/ruginiene-pristate-kaip-lietuva-kovos-su-balionais-uzdaroma-siena-balionai-bus-numusami\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LRT<\/a>, calling the incidents &#8220;hybrid attacks&#8221; and saying her country could discuss invoking the collective defense clause in the founding NATO treaty over the incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Article 4 can be invoked by any NATO member that feels its security is at risk, which would spark talks among the allies to discuss the threat. Article 4 has been invoked nine times in NATO&#8217;s history, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nato.int\/cps\/en\/natohq\/topics_49187.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">three of which related to Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lithuania believes smugglers use the balloons to transport contraband cigarettes over the border, but it has criticized Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia&#8217;s Vladimir Putin, for not clamping down.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/10\/27\/0018f7a6-8d7b-4ba6-82ef-1a72cb63c2a3\/thumbnail\/620x413g8\/373ab2e6304d36621bebe7d280708c77\/lithuania-belarus-balloon-ap25278675830317.jpg#\" alt=\"Lithuania Airport Balloons \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/10\/27\/0018f7a6-8d7b-4ba6-82ef-1a72cb63c2a3\/thumbnail\/620x413g8\/373ab2e6304d36621bebe7d280708c77\/lithuania-belarus-balloon-ap25278675830317.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/10\/27\/0018f7a6-8d7b-4ba6-82ef-1a72cb63c2a3\/thumbnail\/1240x826g8\/b3aa6da03e27a79c085f8ac31c327e9e\/lithuania-belarus-balloon-ap25278675830317.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">In this undated photo released by the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania, an officer inspects a balloon used to carry cigarettes into the country by suspected Belorussian smugglers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                State Border Guard Service via AP<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Inaction is also an action,&#8221; Ruginiene said after a meeting of her country&#8217;s National Security Commission on Monday. &#8220;If Belarus does nothing about it and does not fight, we also assess these actions accordingly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ruginiene added that her government would indefinitely close its land border with Belarus, apart from for diplomats and returning European Union nationals, according to LRT.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is how we send a signal to Belarus and say that no hybrid attack will be tolerated here, we will take all the strictest measures to stop such attacks,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our response will determine how far autocrats dare to go,&#8221; Ruginiene&#8217;s office said in a statement sent later Monday to CBS News.<\/p>\n<p>There was no immediate comment on the incident from officials in Belarus.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8220;Calculated provocations&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p>Many of America&#8217;s European allies have had their airspace breached in recent weeks, mostly by unclaimed drones sighted around <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/munich-drones-europe-belgium-military-base-russia-threat-nato\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">airports and military facilities in Germany, Denmark and the Baltic states<\/a><\/span>. Estonia also <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/russians-violated-estonian-airspace-12-minutes\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">accused Russian fighter jets<\/a><\/span> of flying through its airspace for 12 minutes in mid-September.<\/p>\n<p>Lithuania&#8217;s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BudrysKestutis\/status\/1982735113348677985\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said Monday<\/a> in a post on social media that NATO was facing a &#8220;deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare from Russia and its proxy, Belarus,&#8221; calling the spate of recent airspace incursions, &#8220;calculated provocations designed to destabilize, distract and test NATO&#8217;s resolve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He called for further sanctions against Belarus and stronger NATO security measures to deter the airspace violations.<\/p>\n<p>On October 23, a Russian Sukhoi SU-30 fighter and an IL-78 tanker plane flew just under half of a mile into Lithuanian territory, according to the country&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urm.lt\/en\/news\/928\/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-issues-strong-protest-to-russia-over-airspace-violation:45102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ministry of foreign affairs<\/a>, after departing from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The Baltic Sea coastal territory is separate from the rest of Russia, and bordered on two sides by Lithuania and Poland.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/03\/31\/91250f48-054f-4e9f-a961-f70740e4cc73\/thumbnail\/620x575\/f44c90334c9ed0d6fd6dbad43a8a9e07\/gettyimages-641462490.jpg#\" alt=\"Lithuania is highlighted on a map of northern Europe. \" height=\"575\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/03\/31\/91250f48-054f-4e9f-a961-f70740e4cc73\/thumbnail\/620x575\/f44c90334c9ed0d6fd6dbad43a8a9e07\/gettyimages-641462490.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/03\/31\/91250f48-054f-4e9f-a961-f70740e4cc73\/thumbnail\/1240x1150\/8579eb8b66a1f86675302df5d310befa\/gettyimages-641462490.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Lithuania borders both Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Encyclopaedia Britannica\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two days before that, several &#8220;meteorological balloons&#8221; launched from Belarus were detected by Lithuanian radar systems in the country&#8217;s airspace, disrupting travel at Vilnius&#8217; airport, the foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.urm.lt\/en\/news\/928\/foreign-ministry-protests-to-the-republic-of-belarus-over-violations-of-lithuanian-state-border-airspace:45094\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lithuania summoned the top Belorussian diplomat<\/a> in the country on October 22 to voice a &#8220;strong protest regarding the repeated and increasingly frequent violations&#8221; of its airspace, warning the Russian ally that Vilnius &#8220;reserves the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lithuania&#8217;s National Crisis Management Center said earlier this month that at least 544 balloons had already entered Lithuanian airspace this year, according to CBS News&#8217; partner network <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c0r0ezjzwpno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BBC News<\/a>. The center said 966 such balloon incursions were recorded during 2024.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year we were blind chickens and didn&#8217;t see many things,&#8221; Ruginiene said Monday. &#8220;Thank God, there was no catastrophe. We didn&#8217;t see certain moving objects, so there were no decisions to close the airspace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today we have much better equipment, we can see much more information,&#8221; she said, according to LRT. &#8220;We believe that we need to take action to protect our citizens.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>    <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     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shooting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[563,4623,569,2535,990,852,400,800],"class_list":["post-53194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-belarus","tag-drone","tag-european-union","tag-lithuania","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lithuania accuses Belarus, Russia of &quot;deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare&quot; as balloons shut down airport - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lithuania accuses Belarus and Russia of a &amp;quot;deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare&amp;quot; as balloons shut down major airport.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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