Ministry of Defence: Helicopter from Lithuania violates Belarusian border

A civilian helicopter intruded Belarus's airspace from Lithuania.

The information was received from the press service of the Ministry of Defence.

“At 10:39 on June 26, a light aircraft was detected by the border agencies of the Republic of Belarus to have violated Belarus's state border by air from Lithuania and intruded the country's airspace by 3 kilometres north of Hrodna.

Upon receiving this information, the alert air defence teams of the Air Forces and Air Defence Troops were put on high alert.

The intruder identified itself at a civilian aircraft,” the press release says.

An officer on duty at the command centre of the Air Forces and Air Defence Troops contacted the Airspace Control Centre of the Air Forces of Lithiania and the flight control officer of the Minsk district's flight information unit to receive the data about aircraft in the near-border area. Information was received that a Eurocopter 120 was permitted to perform a flight from Vilnius to Warsaw with the departure time of 10:00.

Taking into account the received information, the adverse weather conditions for the civilian aircraft and out of humanitarian considerations with the priority to save human life, the Air Forces and Air Defence Troops didn't apply air defence measures.

“The information about the incident was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus to take appropriate measures of reaction,” the Ministry of Defence reports.

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