Belarusian authorities protest, as Lithuanian aircraft violates border near Astravets NPP site

On April 22, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over a protest note to the Ambassador of Lithuania Andrius Pulokas on account of the violation of the Belarusian state border by a Lithuanian aircraft.

“At 13:36 on April 19th, Belarusian air defense radar registered light aircraft in the Vilnius region, flying in the direction of our state border,” said the commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Aleh Dvihaliou.

The Belarusian side has identified the aircraft as a civilian. It managed to fly about 8 kilometers over the territory of Belarus, then it made a maneuver and returned to Lithuania.

The military emphasize that the incident occurred in the area of the Astravets NPP construction site.

To stop the aircraft this time, Belarusian troops did not use force, believing that the incident was a pilot’s error. However, they do not exclude the possibility of using force in this situation in the future.

So far, the official Vilnius has not commented on the incident.

In turn, last summer, Lithuania reported a violation of its airspace by a Belarusian aircraft “of unknown type”, and four years ago — by a military aircraft.