{"id":169932,"date":"2025-12-29T16:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T13:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"visits-by-citizens-of-neighboring-eu-countries-to-belarus-plunge-by-half-in-two-years","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/","title":{"rendered":"Visits by citizens of neighboring EU countries to Belarus plunge by half in two years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>December 29, <em>Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>Visits by citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland benefiting from Belarus\u2019 visa waiver program have fallen by half in the last two years to 183,719 between late December 2024 and 2025, according to State Border Committee data analyzed by <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Visits by Poles fell from 42,757 two years ago to 28,538 this year, by Lithuanians to 75,632 from 248,879 and by Latvians to 79,549 from 126,420.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poland closed its border with Belarus amid political tensions from September 12 to 25, and Lithuania closed its border from October 29 to November 19 for similar reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In all, citizens of European countries have made 1,256,327 visits to Belarus since April 15 taking advantage of the visa-free entry program benefiting 38 European countries since 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128-354x236.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128-354x236.jpg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128-734x490.jpg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128-178x118.jpg 178w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/poland_bel_pexels_1128.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Politics<\/label>\n\n                            <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> Security<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">Politics, Security<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Poland locates 17 weather balloons with smuggled Belarusian cigarettes<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">December 28, Pozirk. Polish authorities have located 17 weather balloons carrying smuggled Belarusian cigarettes that flew into Poland on Christmas morning, niezalezna.pl reports. Thirteen balloons were found in the Podlasie voivodeship, and four in the Lublin voivodeship in eastern Poland. &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/169793\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 29, Pozirk. Visits by citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland benefiting from Belarus\u2019 visa waiver program have fallen by half in the last two years to 183,719 between late December 2024 and 2025, according to State Border Committee data analyzed by Pozirk. Visits by Poles fell from 42,757 two years ago to 28,538 this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":83747,"template":"","rubric":[15],"class_list":["post-169932","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Visits by citizens of neighboring EU countries to Belarus plunge by half in two years | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 29, Pozirk. Visits by citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland benefiting from Belarus\u2019 visa waiver program have fallen by half in the last two\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Visits by citizens of neighboring EU countries to Belarus plunge by half in two years | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 29, Pozirk. Visits by citizens of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland benefiting from Belarus\u2019 visa waiver program have fallen by half in the last two\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/facebook.com-GpkGovBY-1128-granica.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"752\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\"},\"headline\":\"Visits by citizens of neighboring EU countries to Belarus plunge by half in two years\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T13:57:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\"},\"wordCount\":122,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/facebook.com-GpkGovBY-1128-granica.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/\",\"name\":\"Visits by citizens of neighboring EU countries to Belarus plunge by half in two years | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/169932\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/facebook.com-GpkGovBY-1128-granica.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-29T13:57:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 29, Pozirk. 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