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Why Belarus and Lithuania clashed on 2 July 2021
Summary
A retrospective look at two border disputes involving Minsk that surfaced on a single day in 2021.
What was happening on Belarus's borders on 2 July 2021? Two separate disputes involving President Alexander Lukashenko were reported that day, one with Ukraine and one with Lithuania.
According to reports at the time, Belarus closed its border with Ukraine after Lukashenko claimed that arms were being smuggled into the country in an attempt by "outside powers" to overthrow his regime. He said they had crossed the line and could not be forgiven. Ukraine denied the claims and said that closing the border would make its people suffer.
On the same day, Lithuania declared a state of emergency amid a rise in the number of undocumented migrants crossing from Belarus. The Lithuanian government accused Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing refugees, mostly Syrians, to cross the border.
Two accusations, one pattern
The two episodes were distinct. In one, Minsk was the accuser, alleging a foreign plot and acting on it by closing a frontier. In the other, Minsk was the accused, charged by a neighbour with using migration against it. In both, the border was where the dispute played out, and in both the governments on the other side rejected or contested the Belarusian leader's conduct.
