Belarus accuses Lithuania of drone espionage and dropping extremist materials on Grodno. Vilnius rejected the accusations and called them fabricated.
On Monday, Belarus accused Lithuania of using a drone for espionage and dropping “extremist materials” on Belarusian territory. Vilnius denies the accusations, TASR writes, according to a Reuters report.
“Yesterday (Sunday, November 30, note TASR) a drone of unknown origin was found on one of the streets of Grodno,” the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior said in a statement, naming Lithuania as the culprit. Grodno in the west of Belarus has approximately 360,000 inhabitants. “During the police check, it was found that the drone is equipped with a camera and a video camera with the ability to collect intelligence data. In addition, extremist materials were dropped from the drone,” the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs added.
Lithuania rejects the accusations
The ministry released photos of a small drone on the sidewalk. Next to it were small white-red-white flags, which opposition representatives use as symbols of disagreement with the policies of President Alexander Lukashenko. The department said that according to their specialists, the drone was launched from the Lithuanian village of Kapčiamiestis near the borders with Belarus and Poland. The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had summoned the Lithuanian chargé d’affaires.
A spokesman for the Lithuanian National Center for Crisis Management denied that Vilnius had sent a drone to spy on Belarus. “This is not the first time that the Belarusian regime has made up stories and blamed Western countries and Lithuania,” a spokesman told Reuters.
The dispute between Belarus and Lithuania comes just a short time after Vilnius airport announced it was forced to suspend operations again due to suspected Belarusian balloons in its airspace. Lithuania claims weather balloons are used by Belarusians to smuggle cigarettes and accuses Lukashenko of tolerating such practices.
