“I must make this decision by Monday. There is no need to drag it out; I do not want any bureaucracy or red tape. This is my principle: I am a systematic person, and I want to resolve this over the weekend,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian leader recalled that representatives of Lithuanian and Polish road haulers had previously reached out to him in writing. Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed government officials to hold a meeting with them. “I instructed the government: go meet with them and talk to them in a humane way. They sat down at the negotiating table, heard them out, and passed their concerns on to me. I will make a decision, and I think starting Monday we will begin the process of returning these trucks. We will return these trucks. I feel sorry for the Poles and Lithuanians,” the head of state said.
At the same time, he noted that the fee for guarding the trucks, originally set at 120 euros per day, may be lowered for the haulers. “They are asking for the parking fee to be reduced. We understand that if we charge them that price, they won’t take back half of these vehicles, because the cost would already be higher than what they paid for them. We will most likely set a European price for them. They have a low customs value. Pay a token amount for parking, and take your vehicles.”
The head of state noted that some vehicles with Lithuanian registration belong to Polish road haulers. The reason is that after Warsaw decided to close the border with Belarus, Polish haulers started operating through Lithuania. “Now the Poles say: ‘For God’s sake, don’t make us take these vehicles through Lithuania to Poland’. I say: ‘Fine, take them through the Polish border’. What difference does it make to us? Go through Ukraine if you want! Open any Polish border crossing and pick up your Polish vehicles with Lithuanian plates. Pay for parking and take them, the routes are set. The Customs Committee is responsible for this and will resolve the issue as instructed by the president,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The president also recalled how this whole situation with the Lithuanian-registered trucks began. After Vilnius decided to close border crossing points with Belarus under the pretext of combating contraband weather balloons, some Lithuanian trucks were left stranded on Belarusian territory. The trucks were parked along roadsides, prompting a decision to move them to special parking lots and set a fee for their security.
“What claims can you have against us? We could have confiscated these vehicles. On the other hand, they, the haulers, wrote those letters. They are mostly private owners. Actually, not mostly, they are all private owners. Six people pool their resources, buy trucks, and earn a living for their families. Or a single person takes out a loan, buys a truck, and does haulage. It’s their families’ source of income,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The Lithuanian politicians themselves made no attempt to resolve the problem that arose as a result of their own thoughtless actions. “They do not care for their people the way our authorities are accustomed to doing. We respond to everything, but to them, these people don’t matter,” the Belarusian leader said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that Vilnius had asked the Americans to discuss this issue with the Belarusian side: “I laid out my position to them, the reasons behind all of this. They also asked about those balloons and cigarettes. They are experienced, knowledgeable people. Do you believe that our criminal smugglers, who smuggle cigarettes for money to their Lithuanian criminal counterparts, paralyzed an airport? Do you believe that? No!”
Consultations were held with pilots on this matter, who confirmed that these balloons do not pose a serious problem, the head of state added. “A plane takes off, it takes off cleanly. You can clearly see that there are no balloons on the runway. It takes off and climbs to 10–11 kilometers. Balloons don’t fly at that altitude,” the president said.
As BelTA previously reported, due to politically motivated decisions by their own authorities, including transit restrictions and the closure of border crossing points, approximately 1,000 trucks with Lithuanian registration became stranded and were unable to operate normally on their usual routes. For four months, Belarus repeatedly attempted to resolve the issue of the Lithuanian-registered trucks through political and diplomatic channels, but Vilnius refused to engage in dialogue.