00:00The Lithuanian government announced that it's reopening the country's two border crossings with Belarus on Wednesday.
00:07It comes weeks after they were closed following disruptions at the capital's airport caused by balloons used to smuggle cigarettes across the border.
00:16Vilnius said late last month that it would keep the borders closed for one month, with some exemptions.
00:22Officials in Lithuania viewed the balloon violation as a deliberate act by Belarus, a close ally of Russia.
00:29The decision is expected to ease the return of hundreds of Lithuanian trucks, which have been trapped in Belarus since the closure came into force.
00:37Minsk refused to open a corridor to allow the Lithuanian trucks' passage back home, and opted to hold them as a means of pressuring Lithuania into reopening the crossings.
00:47Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko slammed Vilnius' decision to close the border crossings as a mad scam, as he accused Lithuania of engaging in a, quote, hybrid war against his country.
00:59Lithuania warned that the crossings could be shut again if balloons and drones reappear in its airspace.
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