After incidents involving helium smuggling balloons on the Lithuania–Belarus border, the European Union (EU) intends to speed up the implementation of the Eastern Flank Watch program and the European Drone Defense Initiative, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on social media.

“Europe stands in full solidarity with Lithuania in the face of the persistent incursions of helium smuggling balloons into its airspace. This is destabilisation. This is provocation. We call it by its name: a hybrid threat. We will not tolerate it,” von der Leyen wrote on X. “This is yet another reason to accelerate our flagships - the Eastern Flank Watch and the European drone defence initiative.”

Separately, European Council President Antonio Costa stated on X that the “EU will continue to put pressure on the [Belarusian] regime” and will also “support the protection of the EU’s eastern border.”