VILNIUS, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Lithuania’s Vilnius airport said on Sunday it had temporarily halted operations due to suspected balloons in its airspace, the latest in a series of flight disruptions in the Baltic nation.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent months by drone sightings and incursions, including in Copenhagen and Brussels, and the Vilnius airport has been closed at least 10 times since early October.
The Baltic country has said weather balloons flown by smugglers are transporting contraband cigarettes, and blames Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for allowing the practice, calling it a form of “hybrid attack”.
Lithuania in October closed both crossing points on the Belarus border in response to balloons, but reopened them last week as the air traffic interruptions appeared to have stopped.
Lukashenko called the border closure a “crazy scam”, accusing the West of fighting a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia, ushering in a new era of barbed-wire division.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Terje Solsvik)
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