Lithuanian border guards fire at illegal migrant near Belarus border

Lithuanian border guards opened fire on an illegal migrant attempting to cross from Belarus late last week, the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) reported Saturday.

The incident occurred along the Lithuania-Belarus border, where officers fired on one individual attempting an unauthorized crossing. Latvian border authorities also reported repelling 87 illegal migrants on Friday, while Polish officials recorded one such case on Thursday.

This year, Lithuania has blocked 446 attempts by unauthorized migrants to enter from Belarus. In 2025, border guards recorded over 1,600 illegal crossing attempts, compared to 1,002 the previous year. Since the start of the migration crisis orchestrated by Belarus in 2021, Lithuanian authorities have prevented 25,000 unauthorized entries.

The surge in migrant flows to Eastern EU member states originated from Belarus, with Western officials accusing Minsk of deliberately facilitating the crossings.