Lithuania named the main source of smuggled cigarettes, and it's not Belarus

Lithuanian border guards detained a record number of smuggled cigarettes in 2025. This is reported by the local State Border Guard Service.

According to the agency, 4440.6 thousand packs of cigarettes were detained last year, which is more than 3 times higher than the result of 2024. The cost of detained tobacco products is almost 21.1 million euros, and the prevented damage to the state budget is more than 18.8 million euros.

The department drew attention to the fact that the past year has also become special in that more illegal cigarettes were tried to be imported from Latvia to Lithuania than from Belarus, which had never happened before. In particular, 50.1% of the detained cigarettes were imported from Latvia, 49.2% from Belarus, 0.3% from the Russian Federation, and in another 0.4% of cases the way of smuggling into Lithuania remained unknown.

Earlier, Vilnius called the smuggling of cigarettes and their transfer from Belarus to Lithuania with the help of weather balloons a hybrid attack of Minsk. This became the basis for the escalation of tension on the border and the demands of the Lithuanian authorities to the EU to increase sanctions pressure on the neighboring republic.