Lithuania has closed two of its six border crossings with Belarus. Officials have installed nail barriers at the Sumsko and Tvereciaus border crossings, which are now closed, and will erect more barriers in the area later on Friday, Border Patrol spokeswoman Lina Laurinaityte-Grigiene told AFP.
Vilnius had justified the step with the Russian Wagner mercenaries stationed in Belarus, who represented a security risk. According to the officials in Vilnius, they also hope to be able to better control smuggling in the future. The four remaining border crossings are equipped with X-ray systems to detect illegally transported goods such as cigarettes.
Tensions had recently increased significantly between the governments in Vilnius and Minsk. Lithuania and Poland had warned their NATO allies that Wagner mercenaries could pose as asylum seekers and thus get into the EU. After the aborted march of the mercenaries under their boss Yevgeny Prigozhin on Moscow in June, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko agreed to accept the fighters.
Source: Stern
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