On Tuesday 4 August 2026, officers from VSAT's Kabeliai Border Post - part of the Varėna Border District, the same post that found the Piesčiai tunnel on 23 July - located an unfinished tunnel near Latežeris village, Druskininkai municipality. After identifying likely dig sites along the border, officers brought in specialists from the Polish State Border Guard Service's Podlasie section, who arrived with dedicated tunnel-detection equipment and located the passage. VSAT reported the find on 5 August 2026.
A 4-metre passage, 1.5 metres deep, with a camouflaged Belarusian entrance
The tunnel had been dug roughly 1.5 metres below the physical border barrier, reinforced with logs and boards, and extended about 4 metres from the Belarusian side into Lithuanian territory. When officers lit the passage, they found the Belarusian-side entrance covered with camouflage fabric. As with the two earlier finds this summer, the tunnel was not yet complete: there was no exit opening beyond the physical barrier, so no one could have used it to cross into Lithuania.
A pretrial investigation into illegal border crossing was opened at VSAT's Varėna Border District, led by a prosecutor from the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor's Office, Alytus District Prosecution. The offense carries a fine, arrest, or up to two years' imprisonment. After the necessary investigative steps, the tunnel was filled in with earth.
The third tunnel found by the Varėna Border District in a matter of weeks
VSAT names this as the third tunnel its Varėna Border District officers have found in recent weeks:
- 23 July 2026 - Kabeliai Border Post officers found a tunnel near Piesčiai village, Varėna district, extending about 5 metres from Belarus, also unfinished with no Lithuanian-side exit.
- 26 July 2026 - Kapčiamiestis Border Post officers found the Pertakas tunnel, 11 metres long, on the bank of a stream 9.5 metres beyond the physical fence in Lazdijai district - the incident where migrants later overpowered four officers, a confrontation VSAT withheld from its public announcement for three days.
- 4 August 2026 - this find, near Latežeris village, Druskininkai municipality.
VSAT states that Lithuania has recorded 12 attempted underground border crossings in 2026 to date. Tunnels remain far rarer than drone-borne smuggling on the Lithuania-Belarus border - VSAT had intercepted 42 contraband drones by early August 2026 - but three tunnels inside two weeks, all incomplete and all caught before use, point to a sustained digging effort along the Varėna district's section of the border.
A full record of border and airspace incidents over Lithuanian territory is at Dronai Lietuvoje. The full incident archive is at incident archive.