March 18, Pozirk. Minsk’s holding hundreds of foreign-registered trucks in the country since November is unacceptable and unjustified, LRT reports, citing a response from the European Commission to LINAVA, the Lithuanian National Road Carriers Association.
The European Union is reportedly treating the stranded trucks crisis as a top-level priority and has placed it on the international agenda.
Belarus is seizing the vehicles without a valid legal basis and must promptly facilitate their return to their legitimate owners, LRT said, citing the document.
LINAVA’s head Erlandas Mikėnas described the ongoing crisis as a de facto freeze of Lithuanian companies’ assets, with reported losses in the millions, and warned that the precedent threatens all European carriers.
The Belarusian government will “notify partners from Lithuania and Poland” of its decision on stranded foreign trucks, Deputy Foreign Minister Ihar Siakreta said yesterday after a meeting in Minsk between Prime Minister Alaksandar Turčyn and executives from Lithuanian and Polish trucking companies.
The meeting did not produce a breakthrough as the Belarusian cabinet issued a statement that did not clarify whether the trucks would be released or why the authorities had refused to do so. Belarusian officials stressed only that the trucking companies must pay all parking and security fees, which executives described as exorbitant.
Minsk barred Lithuanian trucks from leaving the country after Vilnius closed the Medininkai–Kamienny Łoh and Šalčininkai–Bieniakoni border checkpoints for three weeks in late October and November 2025, following incursions by air balloons carrying smuggled cigarettes from Belarus.
Belarus pushed for consultations between the two countries’ foreign ministries, while Lithuania rejected direct diplomatic talks, having significantly downgraded official contacts after what it described as Belarus’ rigged 2020 presidential election.
Vilnius views political negotiations with Minsk as an attempt to break the international isolation of Łukašenka’s regime and potentially pave the way for easing sanctions.
On March 2, LINAVA sent an official complaint to the European Commission regarding Lithuanian and other European Union trucks stranded in Belarus, citing significant property damage caused by Minsk’s refusal to release the vehicles.
Belarus still reportedly holds at least 1,071 vehicles belonging to 149 Lithuanian transport companies, including 496 trucks and 575 semi-trailers. LINAVA estimated their value at €15,907,020.
