BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/07/2006

Belarus refutes Lithuania's claims on violations of its airspace

VILNIUS, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuanian Defense Ministry made claims Monday that a Belarussian Air Force helicopter intruded into its airspace at around 10:35 local time (08:35 GMT).

"The Belarussian helicopter Mi-24 broke almost 100 meters deep into Lithuanian airspace in the Varena district," Lithuanian Air Force commander Arturas Leita said. "Radars of Lithuanian border forces registered that flight."

Lithuanian Air Force has opened an investigation over the incident.

In the meantime, officials at the Belarussian Defense Ministry in Minsk strongly denied Leita's statement.

"The information that a Mi-24 helicopter of our Air Force broke into Lithuanian airspace totally contradicts reality," Vladislav Remenchik, the chief press officer at the Defense Ministry said when Itar-Tass asked him to comment on the situation.

"Monday, scheduled flights were held at our airbase No. 181 and all the helicopters strictly observed the specified flight routes," he said. "None of them violated Lithuanian airspace, which is proved by data of objective control of Belarussian Air Defense Forces."

Earlier, the Defense Ministry strongly denied Lithuania's claims that a Mi-8 helicopter had intruded into its airspace in the night hours of June 20.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10611706&PageNum=0