European Parliament condemns Belarus's hybrid attacks against Lithuania

VILNIUS – The European Parliament has adopted a resolution condemning the escalating and coordinated hybrid attacks by Belarus against Lithuania and the European Union.

Specifically, the resolution points to the sending of unmanned aerial vehicles and balloons into Lithuanian airspace, but the hybrid attacks also include cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns by the Lukashenka regime, economic pressure, and the use of migration as a tool of influence. According to the Parliament, all these attacks are intentional, coordinated, and hostile, and are part of a broader Russian-led strategy to weaken the European Union, national governments, and NATO.

Belarus has been violating Lithuanian airspace with increasing frequency since 2024, disrupting civil aviation and causing both security and economic problems. Fragments of found balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles testify to their controlled use, and in one instance, explosives were also found. When Lithuania closed its border with Belarus due to the attacks, the Lukashenka regime implemented countermeasures. The European Parliament condemns the illegal detention of European hauliers and the political manipulation of migrants.

The Parliament expresses its full solidarity with Lithuania and supports the country's right to take proportional defensive measures against the attacks. The Parliament demands that Belarus immediately cease all hybrid attacks against Lithuania, release all imprisoned European hauliers and their property, compensate them for any financial losses, and ensure the safety of civil aviation and border crossings.

The Parliament also denounces the US decision to lift some of the sanctions imposed on Belarus without coordinating with the European Union, and recalls that the European Union does not recognize dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus.

The Council of the European Union should impose additional sanctions on Belarusian officials, manufacturers and users of unmanned aerial vehicles, organizers of hybrid operations targeting EU infrastructure, economy, or democracy, and on Belarusian state-owned and private entities.

To ensure the safety of its airspace, the EU must cooperate more closely with NATO to end the hybrid attacks. Among other things, airspace defense and counter-drone capabilities should be enhanced, better intelligence sharing must be ensured, and more should be invested in the defense of the EU's eastern border and critical infrastructure. The Parliament supports new EU initiatives such as the European Drone Defence flagship project and the Eastern Flank Surveillance Initiative and considers it necessary to increase EU cooperation with Ukraine in areas such as drone technology, counter-UAV measures, cybersecurity, and countering hybrid threats. Additionally, member states should combat Belarusian disinformation, demand in international organizations that Belarus be held accountable for the attacks committed, and increase the resilience of European society.

In the plenary session, 438 members of parliament voted in favor of the resolution, 37 voted against, and 48 abstained.