Belarusian Military Threaten Lithuanians With "Tough Actions"

The commander of the Air Force and air defense forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus has commented on the incident with the violation of the border by a Lithuanian aircraft.

– On April 19, at 13.36, the air force radar aids and air defense troops of Belarus detected a light aircraft flying in the Vilnius region in the direction of the state border of the Republic of Belarus, – Major General Aleh Dzvihaliou told in an interview to VoyenTV. – In accordance with the agreement on the exchange of information with the Lithuanian side, we informed our cooperating divisions and the Lithuanian side about the possible violation of the state border by this aircraft. But the aircraft continued its flight and entered the airspace of our state. Then it made a maneuver and returned to the territory of Lithuania.

The military paid special attention to the fact that the violation occurred near the nuclear power plant under construction.

"The violator of the state border was identified as a civil aircraft. We did not take any force measures against this plane in accordance with the norms of international law and the legislation of the Republic of Belarus," – Dzvihaliou said.

At the same time, despite good-neighborly relations with the Republic of Lithuania, he stressed: "I would like Lithuania to understand the importance of implementing the agreements, to comply with international legislation, and not to allow such violations on its part."

"The air defense forces, will have to use force-based measures, if such cases are repeated," – the Belarusian military warned.

"I want to believe that it was an unintentional pilot’s error, and not a specially planned action. I hope that the Lithuanian side will confirm this," – the Air Force commander said.

On April 19, 2017, at 13.40, there was a violation of the state border from outside Lithuania. The aircraft flew over the territory Belarus at a distance of up to 8 km and at 13:43, having turned back, left the airspace of our country. On April 22, the Ambassador of Lithuania to Belarus Andrius Pulokas was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. During the meeting, the leader of the Lithuanian diplomatic mission received a note with the Belarusian side’s protest in connection with the recorded fact of violation of the state border of Belarus by the Lithuanian aircraft.