‘People Are Standing Only Because Of You’: Medininkai Border Crossing Closed In Detail

Transport, except for regular buses, is still not allowed through the border.

On Saturday, July 8, Lithuania blocked traffic at the Medininkai checkpoint (adjacent to the Kamenny Loh checkpoint on the Belarusian side). The reason is that a Pakistani citizen tried to enter Lithuania with a fake Romanian passport. The Lithuanian border guards did not let him in, and the Belarusian ones did not allow him back. Because of this, Lithuania closed the movement at the checkpoint. And dozens of cars accumulated in it.

Some passengers tried to talk to the Pakistani. A reader sent a video of one such conversation to the editors of «Zerkalo». One of the drivers waiting in line decided to talk to a man from Pakistan.

“Well, they won't let you in! Do you understand or not?” the man spoke loudly in Russian, actively gesticulating. “People, kids, people are all standing because of you, only because of you.”

“Lithuanian border guards are here and this citizen is sitting here,” another reader said, pointing to a man who unsuccessfully tried to enter Lithuania. “They shout to him: ‘Go back to Belarus!’, but put his hand over his heart. Why are you doing this bro? I have been living for more than 20 years and do nothing like this. Go back.”

Meanwhile, the Medininkai checkpoint still does not allow vehicles to pass through. There is an exception for regular buses that run from Lithuania to Belarus. The Pakistani citizen appears to stay in the neutral zone.

“Belarusian officials decided to temporarily stop crossing the border through the Medininkai checkpoint, refusing to accept a Pakistani citizen who tried to enter Lithuania with fake documents,” the Lithuanian border guards said in a statement. We are not going to allow passage at the Medininkai.

The Belarusian border guards themselves also published a video of what happened at the checkpoint on the Lithuanian side. The video shows how Lithuanian border guards took a Pakistani citizen to neutral territory and blocked the checkpoint with a light fence.

The Kamenny Loh checkpoint is one of the major checkpoints on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border. As a rule, Minsk-Vilnius buses run through it.