Belarus closes ground border for travellers from neighbouring countries, except for Russia
On Thursday afternoon, Belsat started to get reports from Belarusians who said they were not allowed to enter the country when returning from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine.
Later, the information about the country’s border closure was officially confirmed by the Belarusian State Border Committee.
“Due to the epidemic situation in the neighbouring countries, the Republic of Belarus is introducing temporary restrictions on the entry into its territory through ground checkpoints of certain categories of individuals from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine,” the statement reads.
Diplomats, international drivers, railway crews are not subject to the restrictions. However, at the moment, the checkpoint at Minsk Airport is working in its ordinary course.
Earlier this day, Alyaksandr Lukashenka made mention of the need to step up border security. Among other things, his newly-appointed aides are to take the responsibility for the field, the politician announced.
“We did a lot to ensure the border security, when I said we must close the border. To close the border does not mean to ring down an iron curtain. The border is the zone of friendship of peoples. You see, they [neighbouring countries] have issued a challenge to us. What friendship is this? But peoples should not be blamed,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenka.
Border protection issues are now in the limelight amid the pandemic of COVID-19, he added.
Over a month ago, Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned about the threat of war and said that Belarus would have to close the border with the West.
“We are forced to withdraw the troops from the streets, put half of the army on high alert and close the state border in the west — with Lithuania and Poland. We are forced to strengthen the state border, unfortunately, with our fraternal Ukraine,” Lukashenka said.
In mid September, Lukashenka also named the countries that allegedly tried to organise a ‘colour revolution’ in Belarus; Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania being on his list.
On October 2, Belarus recalled its ambassadors from Vilnius and Warsaw and called on Lithuania and Poland to recall theirs from Minsk, as well as to reduce the number of diplomatic personnel. They demanded that Lithuania withdrew 11 diplomats, and Poland — 32. Expressing solidarity with Lithuania and Poland, most EU countries and Great Britain recalled their ambassadors from Minsk.
