Lithuania to reopen Belarus border after balloon incidents

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania will reopen its border crossings with Belarus, ending a closure imposed in response to airspace disruptions by smugglers' balloons, the Baltic republic's government said on Wednesday.

The two border crossings are due to reopen on Thursday, the prime minister's spokesperson said.

Lithuania last month said they would remain closed until the end of November in response to incursions by weather balloons flying from Belarus that have disrupted air traffic and caused closures at Vilnius airport.

Lithuania has said the balloons are flown by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes and blames Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko for not stopping the practice, calling it a form of "hybrid attack".

Air traffic incident reports, however, have decreased in recent weeks. Vilnius airport was last closed eight days ago.

"The circumstances have changed and the state border crossing limitations are no longer needed to ensure domestic security," Lithuania's Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic told a live broadcast government meeting.

Poland has this week reopened two border crossings with Belarus, near Lithuania, which it kept closed for two weeks in solidarity with its neighbour.

Lukashenko has called the border closure a "crazy scam", accusing the West of fighting a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia that was ushering in a new era of barbed-wire division.

Lithuania has accused Belarus of keeping 1,000 Lithuanian-owned trucks to stop them returning home after the border was closed.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Stine Jacobsen, Terje Solsvik and Ed Osmond)