Lithuania closed two of its six border posts with Belarus this Friday to face the risk posed by the Russian mercenary group Wagner, the Lithuanian border guard announced.
“The border posts of Sumsko and Tvericiaus were closed at midnight,” Lithuanian border force spokeswoman Lina Laurinaityte-Grigiene said, quoted by the French agency AFP.
The spokeswoman added that barbed wire fences will be installed at the two posts by the end of the day.
Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, intends to respond in this way to rising 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 justified the decision with the threats caused by the presence of Wagner Group mercenaries in Belarus.
The Lithuanian border guard has admitted the presence of 4,500 elements of the Wagner group in the neighboring country, state radio and television channel LRT said.
Fighters from the Wagner Group, which was active in the war in Ukraine, were transferred to Belarus in June after a brief uprising against the Russian military hierarchy.
The closure of the two posts was also prompted by the fight against smuggling, as the other four crossings are equipped with X-ray detection systems, unlike the ones now closed.
Relations between the two countries have always been tense, but have deteriorated further since the disputed 2020 presidential election in Belarus, which led to demonstrations in Minsk that were violently suppressed by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
Officials in Minsk described the Lithuanian neighbor’s decision as far-fetched.
Belarus supports Russia in the war against Ukraine that Moscow began with the invasion of the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
Source: DN
