Lithuania Finds Unfinished Tunnel for Suspected Migrant Crossings From Belarus
Border guards said the passage was likely meant to move migrants and never reached Lithuanian soil, as similar tunnels have been found in Poland.
- On Sunday, Lithuanian State Border Guard Service officers detected an unfinished 11-meter tunnel near the village of Pertakas in the Lazdijai district. Vibration sensors alerted officials to illegal digging activity along the border with Belarus.
- Migration became a tool on this frontier in 2021 after Western sanctions hit Belarus. European governments claim the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka engineered the crisis to test the European Union's eastern edge with daily attempts at the border.
- Around 20 foreign nationals fled back toward Belarus after spotting approaching officers. VSAT Chief Rustamas Liubajevas stated, "Without logistical support from the Belarusian border guards, this would not be possible."
- Officers filled in the tunnel, which was designed to pass under the patrol path into Lithuania. VSAT reports that migrants are increasingly using tunnels to bypass border defenses, a tactic previously observed in Poland and Lithuania.
- Minsk and Moscow have tested the European Union's eastern edge with methods ranging from airport closures to smuggling balloons carrying GPS trackers. These efforts remain below the threshold of open war, complicating security for Lithuanian border authorities.
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18 Articles
Lithuanian border guards have detected two unfinished tunnels at the Belarus border, which could have been used for the illegal entry of migrants into the country. The findings have been made in recent days with the help of Polish border officers, who have brought specialized equipment to facilitate the detection of the passages, according to TVP World.
The Border Guard believes that the tunnel was intended to smuggle migrants to Lithuania.
Lithuania finds unfinished tunnel for suspected migrant crossings from Belarus
Lithuanian border guards have found another unfinished tunnel believed to have been intended for migrants to enter the country from Belarus, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said on Wednesday.
The Belarusian tunnel to the EU was almost done. Then Lithuania drilled a hole in exactly the wrong place—for the diggers
Lithuanian border guards have found an unfinished underground passage dug from Belarus toward their territory, Lithuania's public broadcaster LRT reported. The shaft never broke through to the surface on the Lithuanian side, so nobody used it. Lithuania's border service reads the dig was probably meant to move migrants across the frontier. Minsk and Moscow have spent the past year testing the European Union's eastern edge with methods that stay …
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