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Moldova's vaccines and Lithuania's border fence
Summary
Two regional developments from the days before 12 July 2021 showed how neighbours of Ukraine were handling pressure on health and on borders.
What was happening on Ukraine's western and northern flanks on 12 July 2021? Two reports from the preceding days offer a snapshot.
On 10 July 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the United States had donated 500,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Moldova. Moldovan President Maia Sandu praised the United States for the deployment.
On 9 July 2021, Lithuania began building a $48 million fence along its border with Belarus. A week earlier, Lithuania had declared a state of emergency because of a rise in undocumented migrants, mostly Syrians, crossing from Belarus. Lithuanian authorities accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing the illegal crossings.
The two reports are unconnected, but both show states in the region acting on immediate pressures: Moldova received vaccine supplies from a foreign partner, while Lithuania turned to physical barriers and emergency measures at its frontier.
