Poland and Lithuania are laughing at Lukashenko's threats to close the borders
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that he would close the borders with Poland and Lithuania and strengthen border controls with Ukraine. However, there are no signs yet that the movement of goods across the Belarusian-Polish and Belarusian-Lithuanian borders will be closed.
The RailFreight publication writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The statement was made yesterday, and, as the publication reports, the container transportation operator United Transport and Logistics Company - Eurasian Railway Alliance (UTLC ERA, a joint venture of the railways of Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation), which carries out rail transportation between Belarus and Lithuania does not yet have any information about the cancellation of freight trains. “Our train, as usual, has just crossed the border,” a company spokesman said when asked by a journalist.
In addition, three weeks ago Lukashenko threatened to impose economic sanctions against Lithuania by redirecting Belarusian cargo from the Klaipeda port. After this, the Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania, Jaroslav Narkevičius, said that this expression is “political language.”
So far, the border between Lithuania and Belarus is operating as usual, as reported to the media by the head of the Lithuanian border service, Rustamas Lyubaevas.
“We don't know what this (advertisement) means. Will the border be closed to cargo, people or something else?.. We need to wait and see what this announcement means and how it is implemented,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius.
He assured that cargo is moving towards the Klaipeda port as usual.
“To this day this is a political threat, we are in contact with the seaport directorate, Lithuanian Railways and heads of other departments. To date, there are no interruptions in cargo transportation. We are discussing the situation and preparing in case there is such a political decision, but to this day there is no concern,” he said in an interview with LRT radio.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller told Reuters that Poland had no evidence that the border was indeed closed. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told Reuters in a text message: "We perceive this as another element of the propaganda campaign, a psychological game aimed at creating a sense of external threat."
Poland's Foreign Ministry told state news agency PAP that the border was operating as normal.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.