“That is how many of them have returned by Wednesday 7 a.m.,” adviser of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), Giedrius Mišutis, told ELTA on Wednesday morning.
According to him, 16 of the vehicles crossed Medininkai border checkpoint, while 17 returned through Šalčininkai border checkpoint.
The arrival does not take long as trucks are returning to Lithuania through separate lanes.
Mišutis added that the majority of trucks with Lithuanian number plates are driven by Belarusian citizens who have residence permits in Lithuania.
Over the past day, a total of 190 freight vehicles arrived from Belarus to Lithuania. Therefore, according to Mišutis, the released trucks that had been detained account for every sixth truck entering the country,
The first trucks released from Belarus started arriving on early Tuesday morning, at around 5 a.m.
As reported, Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko declared that he would allow the trucks to leave „having considered an appeal from Lithuanian and Polish carriers“.
On 17 March, representatives of the Belarusian Government headed by Prime Minister Alexander Turchin, on instructions from Lukashenko, met with representatives of Lithuanian and Polish road carriers, whose goods vehicles were prohibited from leaving Belarus.
According to Belarusian media, more than 1,900 trucks and semi-trailers could not leave the country.
Trucks and semi-trailers have been detained in Belarus since November 2025 in retaliation of Lithuania closing Medininkai and Šalčininkai border checkpoints a month earlier.
Lithuania temporarily closed the two checkpoints in October 2025 due to contraband balloons smuggling cigarettes from Belarus and disrupting operations of Vilnius Airport multiple times, resulting in diverted and cancelled flights.
Seeking for the release of vehicles, the Lithuanian Government soon re-opened border checkpoints arguing that fewer contraband balloons were flying, however, Belarus refused to let the vehicles go.
The National Road Carriers’ Association Linava has appealed to the European Commission noting that members of the organisation have suffered damages of up to EUR 22 million due to Belarusian actions. The European Commission confirmed that the property of Lithuanian carriers was unjustifiably detained in Belarus.