Latvia Closes Last Border Crossing With Belarus After Over 9,000 Illegal Entry Attempts

Latvia temporarily closed its border with Belarus due to technical issues. The country’s interior minister urged residents to abandon plans to travel to Belarus.

The Latvian news outlet LSM reported this, citing Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava.

The Latvian State Border Guard confirmed that the Paternieki border crossing experienced information system failures on Friday evening, making border control operations temporarily impossible. As of Sunday morning, the crossing remained closed.

Latvia’s cyber incident response institution Cert.lv noted that available information did not indicate external interference in the operation of the border crossing’s information systems.

Regardless of the technical issues affecting border control, the interior minister urged Latvian residents to abandon plans to travel to Belarus.

“Under the conditions of the hybrid migration war launched by Belarus, safe movement between the countries may become more difficult,” he said.

At the beginning of July, the Latvian government decided to extend the enhanced border protection regime until the end of the year, as a significant number of border violations continue to be recorded along the Latvia-Belarus border.

In April 2026, Latvian border guards prevented 1,700 illegal border crossing attempts. The figure was 2,433 in May and 2,263 in June. In total, Latvia has stopped over 9,000 attempts to illegally cross the border since the beginning of 2026.

In January 2026, Latvia’s armed forces and State Border Guard released evidence of the involvement of Belarusian security structures in organizing illegal migration across Latvia’s state border.

One of the detained migrants was found carrying documents and communication devices belonging to a Belarusian serviceman. The seized materials included internal documents of a military unit, including records of issued equipment.

In addition, photos and videos showing Belarusian border guards and migrants, including their transportation in military vehicles, were found on the detained migrants’ mobile devices.

The Latvian side also documented cases of direct involvement by Belarusian border guards in transporting migrants to locations from which they were directed toward illegal border crossings.