SMUGGLERS launching balloon swarms stashed with bootlegged cigarettes into Europe could be the latest tactic by Moscow in the escalating “hybrid war” on the West.
Launched from Vlad’s ally Belarus, smugglers are sending balloons across the border into Lithuania with more than a quick buck in mind.
Experts fear the balloons are tactically mapping weak spots in Nato’s eastern flank and are wreaking havoc on air traffic in a bid to sow even more chaos in the Europe Union.
Lithuanian officials told The Telegraph the balloon swarms are being carried out with the approval of Alexander Lukashenkothe Belarusian dictator kept in power by Russia.
At least 550 balloons have been intercepted by Lithuanian authorities this year, but the true number is thought to be much higher, with only 28 percent of balloons shot down, according to local media.
Lithuanian border guards are instructed to shoot down the balloons when it’s safe to do so.
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In October, Lithuania’s capital airport in Vilnius was forced to shut nine times due to balloon swarms, which have seemed to intensify in frequency.
The government previously retaliated against the swarms by closing its border with Belarus.
They can reach altitudes of 26,000 feet and carry up to 50kg of cargo. This week they reached Latvia for the first time.
For now, the balloons are mainly carrying contraband, but the worry is one day they will be fitted with spy cameras, incendiary devices or explosives, experts say.
“The Belarusian regime is responsible for what we are assessing as a hybrid attack aimed at disrupting activities of our government and society,” a Lithuanian official told The Telegraph.
Lukashenko is “fully aware” of the smugglers’ actions and has “little desire” to stop them, according to the official.
He added: “The current activities are being perpetrated in the broader context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and…represent a serious threat to international peace and security”.
Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Lithuania’s former ambassador to the UK, said the balloons were “Moscow-designed and Minsk-implemented”.
“The message it sends is, ‘you are not safe any more, and do not think the war is in Ukraine – it is already here, but in a different form from Russian tanks crossing borders,’” he told The Telegraph.
Mr Bajarūnas, who is also ambassador-at-large for hybrid threats, warned the balloons could easily be fitted with spy cameras, or even incendiary devices similar to those used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip to torch crops in Israel.
It comes as Putin’s scientists launch a squadron of remote controlled spy pigeons fitted with brain implants.
A Kremlin-backed Moscow neurotechnology firm boasts its operators can steer flocks across the sky by zapping signals directly into their brain.
Russia’s sick “bird-biodrones” codenamed PJN-1 are ordinary pigeons surgically implanted with neural chips that allow technicians to direct their routes.
Field tests are being carried out using birds with electrodes inserted into their brains connected to tiny solar-powered backpacks containing onboard electronics, GPS tracking, and a receiver.
Russian tech firm Neiry chillingly claims “no training is required” and birds can be steered remotely in any direction.
Neiry claims the birds can fly 310 miles a day, or more than 1,850 miles in a week on spy missions but bigger birds may soon be weaponised.
They include seagulls, and even albatrosses for large marine missions – but Niery have not revealed how many birds were killed by its brain experiments.
The bird-control scheme echoes old Soviet experiments with combat animals.
Russia has long trained dolphins for military use — including underwater patrols, mine-laying and sabotaging enemy divers.
Images show these dolphins used to guard sea bases, attack underwater targets or plant limpet mines in covert operations.