Riga, 19 November 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Lithuania will re-open its border crossing points with neighbouring Belarus earlier than planned, authorities in Vilnius said on Wednesday.

The Baltic EU and NATO country said operations at the Šalčininkai and Medininkai crossings will resume at midnight on Thursday (2200 GMT Wednesday), following more than two weeks of closure.

At the end of October, Lithuania said it would close the border with its Russia-allied neighbour until November 30 in response to airspace violations and disruptions to civil aviation caused by "smuggling balloons" flying in from Belarus.

The closure also affected many Lithuanian truck drivers who were stuck in Belarus, causing discontent among freight forwarders.

The autocratic ruler of Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, repeatedly called for the border to be opened in recent days.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė justified the early end of the closure with a significant decline in smuggling by air.

This had reduced the risks to national security, civil aviation and Lithuanian society, Ruginienė said in a statement.

Airport operations in Lithuania had to be briefly suspended several times in recent weeks due to weather balloons flying in from Belarus.

Usually used by smugglers to send cigarettes across the border illegally, the balloons recently entered Lithuanian airspace in large numbers on several occasions.

The government in Vilnius considered the development to be a "hybrid attack" that the Belarusian leadership in Minsk played a role in.

By closing the border, Vilnius had aimed to pressure Minsk to stop the balloon flights.

Belarus denied the allegations and responded to the border closure with a ban on Lithuanian lorries leaving the country. According to media reports, around a thousand goods vehicles were stranded.

Photo: MIA archive