A number of websites of Lithuanian state structures, including the ministries of foreign and internal affairs, defense and justice, work intermittently. When you try to go to the site, the message “page blocked” appears.
According to the Elta agency, the State Tax Inspectorate of the Baltic Republic stopped the activity of information systems and stated that it did this because of the recording of an unusually large flow of connections. Lithuania’s National Cybersecurity Center previously made a similar statement. The agency reported an increased number of DDoS attacks that make it difficult to provide services to citizens.
On June 25, the Killnet hacker group announced cyberattacks on the Lithuanian network infrastructure. She issued an ultimatum to the Lithuanian government, saying that the country has 48 hours to unblock transit to Kaliningrad, the group said in a video message on its Telegram channel.
On June 17, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Anton Alikhanov said that the Lithuanian railways had notified the authorities of the region about the termination of the transit of part of the goods due to EU sanctions, then freight road transport fell under the restrictions. Lithuania has limited the transportation of 30 to 50% of the cargo that was delivered to Kaliningrad from the rest of Russia.
Lithuania stated that it complies with EU sanctions against Russia without imposing unilateral or additional restrictions on the transit of goods through its territory. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, explained that the EU does not want to block communication between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia, but intends to prevent the violation of sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested strongly and demanded that the restrictions be lifted immediately.
Earlier today, Kestutis Budrys, senior adviser to the head of Lithuania on national security, said that the republic had agreed on the basic principles and fundamental guidelines for the transit of Russian cargo to Kaliningrad after consultations with the European Commission. He did not comment on specific principles and provisions.