WARSAW, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Belarusian charge d’affaires regarding last week’s airspace breech by objects identified as smuggling balloons, national news agency PAP said on Wednesday evening, citing a ministry spokesman.
Polish police said on Saturday it was informed by the army that unidentified flying objects, most likely smuggling balloons, had entered Polish airspace from the territory of Belarus overnight and that police had retrieved the remains of balloons along with illegal cigarettes in north-eastern Poland.
“The Charge d’Affaires could not answer us regarding the Belarusian side’s role in this (procedure), but we question the fact that the Belarusian side has no knowledge of or influence over such a number of these actions,” the ministry spokesman was quoted by PAP as saying.
“He was also reminded that continuing such behaviour will have consequences, but we do not discuss the details of this matter publicly.”
In Lithuania, smuggling balloons drifting over the Belarusian border have forced repeated shutdowns at the airport in the capital Vilnius, in what authorities call a “hybrid attack” by Belarus, a Kremlin ally. In December Lithuania declared a state of emergency due to the incursions.
(Reporting by Karol Badohal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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