US tells its citizens to leave Belarus.

The U.S. Embassy in Belarus asked[1] American citizens on Aug.

21 to depart the country immediately, shortly after Lithuania closed two of its border crossings. On Aug.

18, Vilnius decided[2] to close two border crossings with Belarus at Tverecius-Vidzy and Sumskas-Losha, leaving four checkpoints still open. The governments of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia said that further closures may come. The U.S. citizens have been told to consider departing via the remaining crossings with Lithuania and Latvia, or by a plane, the embassy's statement said.

Google Flights listed no connections between the U.S. and Belarus, with flights to European capitals costing thousands of dollars. Americans are not allowed to enter Poland from Belarus, and the embassy discouraged them from traveling to Russia or to Ukraine. The embassy also asked the U.S. citizens not to travel to Belarus due to Minsk's "facilitation of Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, the buildup of Russian military forces in Belarus, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the potential of civil unrest, (and) the risk of detention."

The tensions at Belarus' borders with Poland and the Baltic countries have been mounting since 2021 when Minsk engineered a migrant crisis. Concerns among NATO's eastern members spiked again following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and more recently when fighters of the Russian Wagner Group began moving to Belarus following their short-lived rebellion[3] against the Kremlin. However, over a thousand of them have reportedly departed due to low pay, Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported[4] on Aug.

19. In response to the escalating tensions, countries at NATO's eastern flank began reinforcing[5] their eastern borders and limiting the number of border crossings[6].

National Resistance Center: Wagner fighters leave Belarus due to low pay Over a thousand Wagner Group mercenaries have departed Belarus because they are unhappy with their pay, the National Restistance Center reported on Aug.

19.

News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He also volunteers as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukrainer.

Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

References

1. ^ asked (by.usembassy.gov)
2. ^ decided (kyivindependent.com)
3. ^ short-lived rebellion (kyivindependent.com)
4. ^ reported (kyivindependent.com)
5. ^ reinforcing (kyivindependent.com)
6. ^ border crossings (kyivindependent.com)
7. ^ National Resistance Center: Wagner fighters leave Belarus due to low payOver a thousand Wagner Group mercenaries have departed Belarus because they are unhappy with their pay, the National Restistance Center reported on Aug.

   19. (kyivindependent.com)