Belarus border tensions with Ukraine and Lithuania, early July 2021

What was happening on Belarus's western and southern borders as of 8 July 2021? Two separate disputes, both reported on 2 July 2021, pointed to rising friction between Minsk and its neighbours.

On 2 July, Belarus closed its border with Ukraine. President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that arms were being smuggled into the country in an attempt by "outside powers" to overthrow his regime. Ukraine denied the claims and said that closing the border would make its people "suffer".

The same day, Lithuania declared a state of emergency amid an increase in the number of undocumented migrants crossing from Belarus. The Lithuanian government accused Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing refugees, mostly Syrians, to cross the border.

Two accusations, one pattern

The two cases differed in detail. In one, Minsk accused others of hostile action. In the other, a neighbour accused Minsk. Yet in both, a border became the focus of a dispute between Belarus and its neighbour, and in both the accused side rejected or disputed the other's account, as Ukraine did in its denial.

For Kyiv, the closure meant a direct cost for people on both sides of the frontier, which is why Ukraine framed it in terms of suffering. For Vilnius, the emergency declaration was a formal response to the arrivals it attributed to the Belarusian president.