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Lithuania has protested against statements by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko about possible military operations against the neighboring country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic EU and the NATO country announced in Vilnius on Friday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic EU and the NATO country said in a diplomatic note that it expressed “strong protest” against statements that were done earlier this week during a visit to a military exercise. The authoritarian neighboring country was also asked to make an official statement as soon as possible.

In Belarus, a video of Lukashenko visiting troops was published on a pro-government Telegram channel on Tuesday. It showed the long-term ruler having a military representative who explained the objectives of an exercise and how the Belarusian army was prepared to attack parts of Poland or Lithuania if necessary. A narrow land corridor runs between the two EU and NATO states, bordering Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and Russia’s close ally Belarus – the so-called Suwalki Corridor.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the statements contained unjustified accusations about alleged military threats from Lithuania against Belarus, insinuations about the unsustainability of the Suwalki Corridor and instructions to prepare the Belarusian army for a possible confrontation with the Baltic states and Poland. This could be interpreted as a “further escalation of Belarus’ aggressive foreign policy” and was “completely unacceptable,” the statement said. (sda/dpa)