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Balloons, lasers and Europe's tense eastern frontier
Summary
Two incidents reported in the days before 21 November 2025 showed how security pressure on Europe took unconventional forms.
What did the events leading up to 21 November 2025 reveal about the pressures on Europe's borders and seas? Two reports, from 19 and 20 November, offer a partial answer.
On 20 November, Lithuania reopened its Medininkai and Šalčininkai checkpoints with Belarus. It had closed them over security concerns linked to weather balloons used for smuggling. The episode was part of the wider Belarus–European Union border crisis.
On 19 November, a different kind of confrontation was reported in the North Sea. The Russian Navy spy ship Yantar used lasers to disrupt Royal Air Force aircraft that were monitoring it. It was the first time this had been reported for the vessel. A Royal Navy frigate was following the ship, and Poseidon P-8 planes had been deployed to track its movements.
Two different tools
The two cases involved different actors and different places. In one, balloons used for smuggling led a state to shut crossings and then reopen them. In the other, a ship under surveillance used lasers against the aircraft watching it.
Both episodes showed security concerns arising from everyday or improvised means, and both were handled by the states affected: Lithuania by closing and reopening its crossings, and Britain by tracking the Yantar with naval and air assets.
