Lithuania’s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons

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VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania’s Vilnius airport said on Sunday it had temporarily halted operations due to balloons moving towards its airspace, diverting some incoming flights to other cities.

“Attention: Vilnius Airport operations have been disrupted,” the operator said on its website, adding that it was due to reopen at 1:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT).

European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent months by drone sightings and incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Brussels, and the Vilnius closure was the Lithuanian capital’s ninth shutdown since early October.

Lithuania says the disruptions are caused by weather balloons transporting contraband cigarettes from neighbouring Belarus, and blames Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for allowing the practice, calling it a form of “hybrid attack”.

Lithuania last month closed both crossing points on its border with Belarus in response to the balloon incidents, but reopened them earlier this week as the air traffic interruptions appeared to have stopped.

Lukashenko had called the border closure a “crazy scam”, accusing the West of fighting a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia, ushering in a new era of barbed-wire division.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Terje Solsvik and Diane Craft)