{"id":120501,"date":"2025-01-02T22:16:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T19:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/120501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"belarusian-visits-to-lithuania-drop-by-21-percent-over-year","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/120501\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian visits to Lithuania drop by 21 percent over year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\n Vilnius\n <\/div>\n \n
\n Illustration photo (Pozirk)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

January 2, Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> About 550,000 Belarusian citizens visited Lithuania last year, crossing the border about 1.5 million times (some 2.6 crossings per visitor), BNS<\/em> reported, citing the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By comparison, more than 700,000 Belarusians visited Lithuania in 2023, crossing the border about 2.6 million times (3.7 crossings per visitor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the number of Belarusian visitors decreased by about 21 percent and the number of border crossings by 42 percent over the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovi\u010d, whose interview with the agency is run by LRT<\/em>, said this could be related to a decrease in the number of Belarusians in the Lithuanian labor market, the closure of several checkpoints on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border and “other measures that have tightened entry to the country.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Lithuanian sanctions (first introduced in 2023), applications for national and Schengen visas from Belarusian and Russian nationals are no longer accepted, except in special cases; Belarusians and Russians arriving from outside the European Union are additionally checked for threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only two of the six border crossings, Medininkai and \u0160al\u010dininkai, remain open at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2024, the Lithuanian foreign ministry proposed extending restrictions for Belarusians and Russians until May 2, 2026. The justification is that Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, so the reasons for adopting this law “have not disappeared.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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