A bear tested the durability of the border with Belarus (VIDEO)
In the Vilnius region, along the border with Belarus, a forest tested the durability of the border infrastructure. It then jumped into the Vilnelė River and swam into the interior of Lithuania.
According to the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), the animal was captured at night at the Kena checkpoint in the Vilnius district.
On the Lithuanian side, a physical barrier consisting of a protective fence and a concertina is in place to protect the area from the influx of illegal migrants. As is the case along the entire border with Belarus, a SSSS surveillance system is in place. The line of the Lithuanian border with Belarus itself runs across the physical barrier along the Vilne River.
Kenos Border Guard officers recorded a bear coming to the border from the forest in the interior of Lithuania.
Without waiting for anything, it started walking along the external border of the European Union, testing the strength of a single metal pole, which is equipped with a VSAT surveillance camera and a spotlight. The Bear stood on her hind paws and shook the mast and its equipment with her full weight. It turned out to be very solidly built.
Menka had enough of this experiment and did not test the durability of the other VSAT infrastructure anymore.
After a one and a half kilometre hike, the animal came to the point where the border with Vilnius ends and the river flows into Lithuanian territory. Here the bear paused as if sensing something.
Then it suddenly jumped into the bank rushes, peeked through them into the Vilnelė and swam in the darkness into the interior of Lithuania.
A physical barrier consisting of a concertina pyramid and a protective fence was completed at the end of 2022 along most of Lithuania's border with Belarus, and the border is now controlled by both technical and organisational means.
Until the start of the migrant crisis from Belarus, border guards were monitoring just over a third of the entire length of the border with Belarus with modern systems.