This year, 938 people illegally tried to reach Lithuania from Belarus; this number is 12 times higher than in the entire 2020. More than half of them come from Iraq, and the rest comes from Iran, Syria, Guinea, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.
“Lukashenko seeks to weaponize migration to weaken our resolve for sanctions,” Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, posted on Twitter. “Emergency or not — it shall not pass!”
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, quoted by the state news agency BiełTa, said on Friday that his country, threatened by Western sanctions, did not have funds to stop illegal migrants.
"Honestly, we will no longer hold those you choke in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq. Due to your sanctions, we have neither the money nor the strength to do it," said Lukashenka during the Independence Day celebrations.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised support for Lithuania on Friday. "One thing is certain: your worries and your problems in Lithuania are European problems. I wanted to express it strongly, we really stand by your side in this difficult time" - she announced.
How do those migrants find their way to Belarus with all those countries, including Russia, in the way? The working theory is that it's a part of the KGB operation to destabilize the Baltic States. As we reported a few days ago, Lithuania also fears that among those migrants, maybe Russian "little green people" similar to those used in Ukraine.
