Hybrid warfare

Balloons block Vilnius airport, Lithuania accuses Belarus

The country has long denounced the incursion of balloons from Belarus, but now they become an instrument of sabotage

by Antonio Talia

22 October 2025

L’aeroporto di Vilnius, capitale della Lituania

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Belarus denied the allegations

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

A weather observation balloon can cost around 50 euros: last night, a few dozen were enough to paralyse air traffic in Vilnius, cancelling or displacing at least thirty flights and forcing 4,000 passengers to the ground. The latest act of hybrid warfare was needed, and only a few thousand euros were needed to inflict considerable damage on Lithuania.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiené explicitly accused Belarus and called for an emergency meeting of the National Security Commission: 'We must discuss this situation immediately and we must find - not discuss, but find - a solution,' she said.

Belarus has denied the allegations

After submarine cable cuts, sabotage and drone raids, balloons are the latest frontier of arsenalisation conducted by Moscow and its allies to launch actions now all over Europe, while the eastern flank of the EU and NATO increasingly resembles a veritable laboratory of non-linear conflict.

Actually, the use of balloons is nothing new for Lithuania, nor for the other Baltic republics: as we told you in the second instalment of our hybrid warfare special, Vilnius has been reporting incursions of balloons from Belarus for some time.

The target, as a rule, is smuggling: in Grodno, a town not far from the Lithuanian-Belarus border, there is a factory in Belarus that, according to Lithuanian intelligence reports, produces five times the national cigarette requirement; the overproduction is destined for smuggling, which is one of the most important budget items of the Lukashenko regime, and the smugglers are often border guards and agents of the Belarusian security services.

But last night's raid seems to confirm the suspicions of General Rustamas Liubajevas, commander of the Lithuanian Border Guard, who already warned last May about the dangers of Belarusian balloons: in a context of hybrid warfare, do smuggling balloons only serve for illicit trade or do they become an instrument of sabotage? And can criminal smuggler networks turn into troublemakers?

The first balloons were spotted around 10.30 p.m. last night, and Vilnius airport was only reopened at 6.30 a.m. this morning. 'We have established that the balloons were not launched from a single location, and we are investigating to identify who ordered this operation,' said Lithuanian National Crisis Management Centre director Vilmantas Vitsaukas.

General Liubajevas stated that the balloons detected are "several dozen", of which at least twelve have been intercepted, but "the total number could exceed 200". The general added that four suspects have been arrested, but "this number could grow quickly, because investigations and intelligence operations are continuing".

Brussels, meanwhile, has not overlooked the timing of this new incursion. Exactly as in the cases of recent weeks, the blockade of Vilnius airport took place on the eve of an important summit for Ukraine and European security: tomorrow the European Council will bring together EU leaders to discuss not only the new sanctions package against Russia and the defence plan, but also a measure that is triggering Moscow's fury: the use of some EUR 140 billion of frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv's defence.