Some Lithuanian Carriers No Longer Travel Through Belarus

They travel through Latvia and Russia.

Romas Austinskas, President of the Lithuanian National Association of Carriers, told Delfi that some of the carriers travel through Latvia and Russia to bypass Belarus.

"Today, I spoke with the responsible person who monitors the situation at the border; no checks remain, and we are not sent to the internal customs in Belarus, but some of the carriers have changed direction and travel through Russia," Austinskas said.

On Monday afternoon, he said, the queue at the border between Latvia and Russia decreased. "There are only 80 cars, this is not much at the moment, (...) 360 cars were parked last week," said the President of Linava.

He said that the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's demand to reduce the number of employees of the Lithuanian Embassy in Belarus raises concern.

"Such an ultimatum in the sphere of diplomacy, we think, can touch us to one degree or another in the form of inadequate decisions," said Austinskas.

However, Lithuanian Transport Minister Yaroslav Narkevich said that he did not see a "connection" between the requirements for embassies and carriers.

"The issue of the embassies is decided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we do not know if there will be changes. The second point is that we do not have a transport attaché in Belarus. (...) I don't see the connection. Last week, we discussed the situation for the last time; there was a meeting with carriers, representatives of the Foreign Ministry, and the presidential service; a number of changes were analyzed, but they are not here now," Narkevich said.

According to him, the situation on the border with Belarus has stabilized.

"The carriers said that, at first, there were certain obstacles, delays, but now the situation has stabilized, there are no special queues in Belarus," Narkevich said.

Lukashenka recently announced that Belarus would send its cargoes from the Klaipeda port to the Russian ones and "close the border with the West."