Amid ongoing riots in the Belarusian capital Minsk, which have seen considerable support from Western parties, and following growing tensions between the country and the Western Bloc nations, the Defence Ministry has intercepted propaganda balloons carrying pro-Western and anti-government messages launched from neighbouring Lithuania.
The ministry stated to this effect: “Air force and air defence alert units thwarted a provocation staged by the republic of Lithuania near the Volkovshchina settlement in the Oshmyansky district at about 7:30 pm on August 23rd… A group of eight balloons carrying anti-government symbols was launched from the neighbouring territory. Mi-24 helicopters from the air defence alert units stopped their flight without using ωεɑρσռs.” The ministry added that it provided a report to the Foreign Ministry, which would lodge a protest against Lithuania.
Use of propaganda balloons is far from an uncommon tactic, and is best known for its use by a number of South Korean groups with American funding to spread pro-southern and pro-Western propaganda in North Korea. These have often seriously inflamed tensions between the two Koreas, and have at times been perceived as a serious threat following suggestions at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by elements in the south that the balloons should be used as a means to spread infectious materials into the north – biological ωαɾfare.
Tensions surrounding the dissemination of propaganda in Belarus remain far less serious, but it is likely that further attempts to do so will be made from neighbouring NATO member states should the instability continue. Belarus is Russia’s only military ally on the European continent, and both the president and the Defence Ministry have repeatedly highlighted the potential threat of more overt Western intervention in the country – leading forces to be placed on high alert and the president to order elite airborne units to deploy to the western border. Units have been ordered to respond without warning to any attempts to violate the borders.
