Belarusians

Sixty-nine public figures on Tuesday launched a joint appeal to President Gitanas Nausėda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Seimas, urging them to prevent Belarusian communities active in the European Union (EU) from using Lithuanian statehood symbols.

Lithuanian passport manufacturer Garsų pasaulis has stopped making new Belarusian passports, following the criticism from politicians and a warning from law enforcement, 15 minučių reports.

Increasingly more Belarusians choose to live and work in Lithuania. Data of the Employment Service show that since 2022 the number of Belarusian citizens who work in Lithuania has increased by 33,600 or nearly four times.

On Sunday afternoon, Belarusian citizens residing in Lithuania held a rally in Vilnius over the unfair Belarusian presidential election in which Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner.

More than a dozen people rallied outside the European Commission’s office in Vilnius on Friday to "defend the honour and life" of Belarusian Vasiliy Veremeichik, pro-Ukraine fighter.

On 13 November in Strasbourg, minister of foreign affairs of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, on behalf of the Government of Lithuania, signed an agreement with the Council of Europe (CoE) for the establishment of the Information Point for Belarusian people in Vilnius, the MFA reports.

President’s chief foreign affairs adviser Asta Skaisgirytė admits that Hungary’s decision to facilitate Schengen visa policy for Russian and Belarusian citizens is concerning. Therefore, she stressed that a decision on the EU level would have to be sought to prevent citizens of Russia and Belarus fr...

Three Belarusian nationals have been named suspects in an investigation probing the forced landing of a Ryanair plane that flew then Belarusian opposition figure Roman Protasevich in Minsk in 2021.

Hundreds of Belarusians have signed a petition asking Lithuanian authorities to allow them collect their vehicles that got stuck in the port of Klaipėda after arriving from the United States. The authorities say there is a risk sanctions will be evaded.

Several thousand cars bought by Belarusians from the United States may be stuck at the Klaipėda seaport, Vakarų ekspresas news website reports.

The Seimas on Thursday voted to pass legislation extending national sanctions on citizens of Russia and Belarus for another year and tightening the checks of Belarusians arriving to the country.

The Migration Department plans to screen 18,000-20,000 citizens of Belarus who had moved to Lithuania prior to 2022, when restrictions were imposed due to Russia’s war against Ukraine and the role of Belarus in it.

Fewer Belarusians arrived in Lithuania in recent months and one of the reasons behind this is tighter restrictions and changing priorities of Lithuanian employers, says Director of the Migration Department Evelina Gudzinskaitė.

Almost a third of Lithuanian residents support the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow individual Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Olympics as neutrals, a poll commissioned by the LRT public broadcaster finds.

On Wednesday night, in Vilnius train station, two Belarusians got off the transit train travelling from Kaliningrad to Saint Petersburg via Lithuania and Belarus.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė believes that discussions are needed before deciding whether identical sanctions should apply on Belarusian and Russian citizens. According to her, potential political and economic ramifications should be considered.

Despite attempts by the Lukashenka regime to set us against each other, we stand together in defense of freedom and democracy from authoritarian aggression.

Julia Mickiewicz – a Belarusian activist, co-founder of the Feminist group within the Coordination Council in Belarus – had to leave her country 2 years ago. Together with the organisation for non-formal organisation for which she works, Julia relocated to Lithuania. Julia tells about life in immigr...

Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė says her ministry has already drafted amendments to the law on foreigners’ legal status to enable a mechanism for issuing a foreigner’s passport to opponents of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime only.

Seimas Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen says no political group in the Seimas favours the president’s proposal to tighten restrictions for Belarusian nationals, making them equal to the ones imposed on Russian citizens.