Laimis Zhlabis

said that compared to last week, the situation at the border is improving, queues are decreasing, but still remain.

"There are reasons for this: we have additional traffic coming from the Polish side," said Laimis Zhlabis.

— Three border crossings with Belarus are closed in Poland, so carriers choose Lithuania to leave the EU.

But at all checkpoints, all employees are busy.

We do it as fast as we can, but we cannot sacrifice quality control, especially when it comes to sanctioned goods."

According to his information, today the queue at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border to enter Belarus is less than 100 vans, and the longest queue is 350 trucks.

"That means they will have to wait a day or even more," Zhlabis clarified.

Laimis Zhlabis noted that it is necessary to take into account additional circumstances - we are talking not only about cargo, but also about passenger transportation.

"What does passenger flow mean?

This is also related to the issuance of tax-free checks.

This is an additional arrangement.

Now our responsibilities have doubled compared to the situation 2-3 months ago.

It should also be said that the export procedure, compared to the import procedure, is twice as short as in Belarus.

Our neighbors - the Belarusian customs - are not able to accept that flow.

The entire neutral zone is filled with cars that do not move.

This queue is directly connected to the main queue, in which there are 400 cars.

We can't service cars if the line isn't moving.

And there is no possibility to add more employees to the customs office, because there is no reason for this," said the head of the department of the customs control organization of Lithuania.

Zhlabis noted that the situation is now completely reversed if we compare 2019 and 2023.

"There were never queues on the "export" side, there were only queues on the "import" side.

It all started with the introduction of sanctions, from the first package to the last.

The verification procedure has been extended in connection with this."

After the introduction of new sanctions, Lithuania denounced the agreement on border cooperation with Belarus.

"I cannot predict the future, but it seems that next year or during the next two years, the situation between Lithuania and Belarus on the border may remain as it is, or even worsen.

If the Latvian colleagues close the border control points, the entire flow will go through ours.

We are trying to regulate the situation, and I believe that the situation is sufficiently regulated, because the queues do not stand longer, they are still decreasing little by little," said Laimis Zhlabis.

What worsens the movement across the border between Lithuania and Belarus

There are 8 border crossings on the border between Belarus and Lithuania.

The Beniakoni - Stasylos crossing, which is intended for freight rail transportation, has been closed since February 16 at the initiative of Lithuania.

The following checkpoints are currently operating on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border:

  • Vidzy — Tverėčius (passage is available for cars and empty trucks, the border cannot be crossed on foot or by bicycle).

  • Katlovka — Lavoriškės (passage is available for cargo and passenger vehicles, you can also cross the border by bicycle).

  • Losha — Šumskas (passage is available only for cars, you can also cross the border by bicycle).

  • Kamenny Log — Medniki / Medininkai (passage is available for cargo and passenger transport, you can also cross the border by bicycle).

  • Benyakoni — Šalčininkai (passage is available for cargo and passenger transport, you can also cross the border by bicycle).

  • Privalka — Raigardas / Raigardas (passage is available for cargo and passenger transport, you can also cross the border by bicycle).

  • Gudagai — Kena (Only for freight rail transportation).

Before the covid pandemic, you could get to Lithuania from Belarus by regular trains, the journey took less than 3 hours.

From 2020, there will be no passenger rail connections with Lithuania, the Lithuanian side made such a decision after the start of the pandemic.

In the spring of 2021, a migration crisis arose on the border of Belarus and Lithuania - Belarus allowed migrants from Syria, Iraq and some African countries to pass through its territory.

This led to tension in the border zone and constant clashes between Lithuanian border guards and migrants.

During the migration crisis, several hundreds of migrants were detained at the border per day, in total, more than 15,000 migrants from Belarus were not allowed to enter Lithuania.

As of June last year, 2,600 migrants who came from the territory of Belarus remained in Lithuania.

In September 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Lithuania announced its intention to close the border with Belarus to tourists altogether, but this did not happen.

Closure of border crossings between Poland and Belarus.

What you should know

  • In July 2021,

    Alexander Lukashenko

    said that due to sanctions, Belarus will no longer curb illegal migration to EU countries.

    Poland has become one of the countries to which flows of migrants rushed.

    Responding to the crisis, Poland, like Lithuania, began building a wall on the border with Belarus, and on November 9, 2021, closed the Kuznica Bialystok - Bruzgi crossing.

  • In Warsaw, Lukashenka's regime was accused of organizing illegal migration to EU countries in order to blackmail EU countries and demand the lifting of sanctions.

    Polish Prime Minister

    Mateusz Morawiecki

    expressed confidence that the scenario of "hybrid aggression" against the European Union was not developed by Minsk independently, but in close cooperation with Moscow.

  • On February 9, 2023, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland,

    Mariusz Kaminski,

    announced the decision to close the Bobrowniki-Berastawicz border crossing, starting from February 10.

    This was Poland's response to the political sentence against journalist

    Andrzej Pachobut

    , an activist of the Polish national minority in Belarus.

    He was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

  • There are a total of 6 checkpoints on the Belarusian-Polish border.

    From February 10, 2023, only one of them is open for cars and one for trucks, in Brest.

Border crossings on the border of Belarus and Poland.

Infographics

  • Brest (Terespol on the Polish side) — valid only for cars;

  • Kozlovichi (Kukuriki) — passage is allowed only for trucks;

  • Bruzgi (Kuznitsa Bialystokskaya) — closed in 2021;

  • Berastovitsa (Bobrovniki), - closed from February 10, 2023;

  • Piaschatka (Polawtsi) - does not function on the initiative of the Polish side;

  • Damachava (Slovatychy) - does not function on the initiative of the Polish side.

    • The border crossing with Lithuania "Privalka - Raigardas" continues to operate near Hrodna.

      It is located close to the border with Poland.

    • At a press conference in Brussels on February 10, the Polish Prime Minister noted that Warsaw is considering the option of closing the remaining two border crossings with Belarus.

      He stated that the Russians and the Kremlin are treating Belarus "instrumentally", and this poses a great threat to Poland and Ukraine.

    • Before the border crossing in Bobrovniki was closed, at least 12 customs officers were detained there.

      It may be about bribery.

      This was reported by Gazeta Wyborcza.

      The publication received information about the detention of customs officers on the night of February 11, already after the border crossing was closed.

    • On February 13, the Border Committee of Belarus reported that the number of cars at other crossings increased by 16% during the first weekend after the closure of Bobrovniki.