On Sunday evening 26 July 2026, officers from the Kapčiamiestis Border Post in Lazdijai district detected ground vibrations indicating excavation near the village of Pertakas, close to the Lithuanian-Belarusian state border. The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) publicly reported the find on 29 July 2026. On the bank of an unnamed stream on Lithuanian territory, 9.5 metres beyond the physical fence, border guards located an unfinished tunnel approximately 11 metres long, one metre in diameter and 1.5 metres deep. About twenty foreign nationals in civilian clothing fled into Belarusian territory as the patrol approached. Logs, excavated sand, and buckets were recovered at the site. The tunnel was filled in after investigative steps were completed; a pretrial investigation has been opened.
File photo: interior of the tunnel found near Piesčiai, Varėna district, on 22 July 2026 — similar in construction to the Pertakas passage. Wooden and metal supports line the walls; water has pooled on the floor. Photo: VSAT.
Vibration sensors at the Kapčiamiestis post detected excavation from the Belarusian side
The Kapčiamiestis Border Post operates in Lazdijai district along a stretch of the Lithuanian-Belarusian border where the terrain is characterised by low-lying ground and scattered streams. VSAT has installed technical equipment for detecting ground vibrations along this section; on the evening of 26 July 2026, the system registered a signal consistent with active digging.
A patrol was sent to the Pertakas area. The geography at this section presents an unusual complication: Belarus and Lithuania are separated at this point by a small, unnamed stream, and the physical barrier - a metal fence with barbed wire - is set deeper into Lithuanian territory than the state border line itself, because the stream bank has unstable soil that cannot support a fence structure. The actual state border runs along the stream, while the fence stands some metres further into Lithuania.
As the border guards approached, approximately twenty foreign nationals - described as young men in civilian clothing - fled from the Lithuanian bank of the stream back into Belarusian territory.
The passage was 11 metres long, 9.5 metres beyond the fence, with no exit under the patrol road
On the bank of the stream, already on Lithuanian territory and 9.5 metres from the physical fence, border guards located an unfinished underground tunnel approximately 11 metres long. It was one metre in diameter and had been sunk to a depth of 1.5 metres below the surface. The tunnel was oriented to run under the patrol road and further into Lithuanian territory beyond it.
The passage had not broken through on the exit side - there was no exit beyond the patrol road on the Lithuanian side - so no one could have used it to enter Lithuania. Next to the tunnel entrance lay logs, presumably intended to reinforce the vault of the passage; excavated sand was piled at the site; buckets had been left inside the tunnel.
After the necessary procedural steps were taken as part of the investigation, the tunnel was filled in with earth. The Lazdijai District prosecution has opened a pretrial investigation into the criminal facilitation of illegal border crossing, per VSAT reporting cited by LRT and Charter97.
VSAT chief: border guards have identified 'dozens' of suspected tunnel sites, Belarusian involvement implied
Rustamas Liubajevas, head of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, confirmed that the Pertakas find was not isolated. Speaking after the discovery, Liubajevas told reporters that border guards had identified "dozens" of other locations along the Lithuania-Belarus border where similar underground passages might be under construction or planned, according to Meduza, citing LRT.
Liubajevas also addressed the question of Belarusian state involvement. He said it was impossible to bring timber close enough to the border to construct a reinforced underground passage without the knowledge of Belarusian border guards: there was "little doubt" they were either turning a blind eye or actively assisting the work. Belarusian officials were probably not digging themselves, he said, but the work was being organised with migrants and could not proceed without at least the passive permission of the Belarusian side.
The assessment echoes a pattern documented further along the border. Polish authorities investigating similar tunnels found in 2025 told The Telegraph that specialists from the Middle East with a "high level of expertise" had helped design them. The British newspaper described the tunnel network as a new escalation in what it characterised as the Kremlin's hybrid-pressure campaign against EU border states.
Second tunnel found on the Lithuania-Belarus border within four days
The Pertakas discovery came four days after the detection of the Kabeliai tunnel on 22 July 2026 in Varėna district, approximately 60 km to the north-east along the same state border. The Kabeliai passage was five metres long, one metre in diameter, at 1.5 metres depth, and had not broken through the Lithuanian exit. Both tunnels were found using vibration sensors, both at the construction stage, and both were filled in after investigation.
Tunnels are rare on the Lithuania-Belarus border compared with drone activity. VSAT recorded 35 drone interceptions in the first seven months of 2026 alone, with underground passages representing a more labour-intensive approach that requires sustained access close to the border on both sides. The 26 July Pertakas tunnel is the longest Lithuanian-border tunnel documented in AirVeto's incident archive.
A full record of border and airspace incidents over Lithuanian territory is at Dronai Lietuvoje. The full incident archive is at incident archive.