VILNIUS (Reuters) -The border crossings between Lithuania and Belarus will remain closed for most travellers until the end of November in response to recent airspace disruptions from smugglers' balloons, the Baltic country's government said on Wednesday.
Lithuania's Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said on Monday that cigarette-carrying smugglers' balloons, which caused airports to shut on five occasions this month, were a form of hybrid attack and that her country will begin shooting them down.
Lithuania has decided to keep both its checkpoints on the Belarus border closed, the cabinet said on Wednesday.
"We understand this will be an inconvenience to our citizens and businesses, and we regret that, but we view security extremely seriously," Ruginiene told a government meeting.
Exceptions are made for diplomats, citizens of European Union and NATO countries and Ukraine leaving Belarus, transit to Russia's western Kaliningrad exclave and foreigners with Lithuania's humanitarian visas, the government said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Lithuania's closure of the border was a "crazy scam" and accused the West of fighting a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia that was ushering in a new era of barbed-wire division.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
