On Tuesday, the border guards scared off the Belarusians who damaged the physical barrier 4 times

This was aimed at illegal crossing of the border by migrants. In all cases, the Lithuanian border guards reacted quickly, so not a single immigrant entered the country illegally. There is no doubt that all four violations committed from about 6 p.m. until midnight on Wednesday, organized by Belarusian officials. The first of these VSAT was recorded by the officers of the Adutiškis border checkpoint of the Vilnius border team through the border surveillance system at Švenčioni district.

One individual was observed on the Belarusian side. He allegedly tried to cut a concertina with metal scissors at the physical barrier installed on the Lithuanian side of the state border. The information from the observation center located in the Adutiškis fortress was immediately transmitted to the closest patrolling VSAT patrols. They quickly rushed to the scene, and the frightened vandal ran back to his territory. Later, the border surveillance system of the Tverech border checkpoint of the same national team recorded two persons running from the Belarusian side to the physical barrier near the Ignalina district.

These also started to damage the physical barrier. On the Belarusian side, Lithuanian border guards saw approximately 10 persons lurking, undoubtedly illegal migrants. Frightened by the arriving border guards, after slightly damaging the concertina, the guides together with the illegal migrants also ran into the depths of Belarus. Soon after, a similar incident near the Švenčioni district, only in a different place than the first time, was again recorded by the border guards of Adutiškis. 2 persons approached the physical barrier on the Lithuanian side, monitored by VSAT officers through cameras. It was seen that they brought 5 illegal migrants to the border. Using a flashlight, one of the organizers watched his masked comrade, who began to cut the physical barrier with metal scissors.

They did not manage to finish the “work” and direct the migrants to Lithuania, because VSAT patrols promptly arrived at this place. Both guides and migrants hastily retreated. Just before midnight, Adutiškis border guards had to respond to another similar situation. In the third place, two persons who appeared from the depths of Belarus in the Švenčioni district also began to damage the physical barrier in order to divert the 4 migrants brought to Lithuania. This episode ended in the same way as the first three – both the migrants and those accompanying them had to run away from the Lithuanian border guards back to the depths of Belarus. In total, this year VSAT recorded 73 attempts to deliberately damage the physical barrier installed on the border with Belarus. Last year there were 467 such cases.

Belarus regime from 2021 organizes illegal migration attacks in the summer in order to destabilize the situation in Lithuania and neighboring countries. For Belarus, with the help of Russia, illegal migrants were and are a tool to achieve this. in 2022 at the end of 2015, a physical barrier consisting of a concertina pyramid and a protective fence was completed near the majority of Lithuania’s border with Belarus (with the exception of isolated areas where the construction of such an engineering facility was not carried out due to natural obstacles – i.e.

swamps, access to water bodies, etc., but here the border is controlled by other technical and organizational means). Also, the entire 679 km long Lithuanian border with Belarus is controlled by VSAT officers with modern video surveillance systems, which record any approach from the Belarusian side. Belarusian officials themselves from 2021 contributes to illegal migration, organizes the access of foreigners to the external border of the EU and coordinates their illegal crossing into the territory of the community.

From 2021 on August 3, when VSAT officers were given the right to turn around immigrants from Belarus trying to cross the border in unauthorized places, 21,362 of them were denied entry by Lithuanian border guards. VSAT prevented 8,106 such foreigners from illegally entering Lithuania from Belarus, in 2022 – 11,211, and this year – 2,045.