Lithuania closes two border crossings with Belarus

Lithuania closed two out of six border posts with Belarus this Friday because of the danger posed by the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries, Lithuanian border guards said.

“The border posts of Sumy and Tvericheus were closed at midnight,” said Lina Laurinaityte-Grygiene, spokeswoman for the Lithuanian border troops, quoted by the French news agency AFP.

The spokeswoman added that barbed wire fences would be installed at two posts by the end of the day.

Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, intends in this way to respond to growing tensions with neighboring countries, including Belarus, which Vilnius accuses of provocations.

In addition to Belarus, the Baltic country borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The Lithuanian government motivated this decision by threats caused by the presence of Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus.

Lithuanian border guards have acknowledged the presence of 4,500 members of the Wagner Group in the neighboring country, state broadcaster LRT reports.

The fighters of the Wagner group, which actively participated in the war in Ukraine, were transferred to Belarus after a short June uprising against the Russian military hierarchy.

The closure of two checkpoints was also motivated by the fight against smuggling, given that the other four checkpoints are equipped with X-ray detection systems, unlike those currently closed.

Relations between the two countries have always been tense, but worsened further after the disputed 2020 presidential election in Belarus, which sparked demonstrations in Minsk that were brutally suppressed by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

In Minsk, the decision of the Lithuanian neighbor was called far-fetched.

Belarus supports Russia in the war against Ukraine, which Moscow launched with an invasion of the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.