Context: Following the outbreak of military conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran in March 2026, hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists and residents were stranded in the shelling zone. About 3,000 of them were Belarusians. Due to Iran’s strikes on neighboring countries and drone attacks on the Dubai airport, Belavia canceled its regular flights and replaced them with evacuation flights. The company sent empty planes to the region, solely to return Belarusians to their homeland.
Criticisms from Belarusian state media targeted neighboring countries, with the pretext being the evacuation of compatriots from the Middle East conflict zone. Political scientist Aliaksei Dzermant, invited as a guest on the Budni program on the SBTV YouTube channel, commented on Alpha Radio observer Vadim Shepet’s statement that the actions of official Minsk regarding the evacuation of Belarusians are an indicator of a strong state.
“[Belarus is] a merciful state that treats its citizens appropriately and values them, really. We realize it’s expensive to fly an empty airplane. It’s worth a lot, actually. And Lithuania, for instance, could afford it, too; it’s not such a poor state. But this shows that its citizens are not so important or valuable to Lithuania,” said Dzermant on the show aired on March 6, 2026.
The CTV TV channel’s news program featured a story titled “Left to Fend for Themselves.” The presenter explicitly stated that the Lithuanian authorities were unwilling to participate in the rescue.
“The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the public that the state does not plan to evacuate its citizens from the Middle East.”
This CTV news story was released on March 4, nearly a day after Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė announced the evacuation of the most vulnerable individuals. In total, about a thousand Lithuanians were in the dangerous region. The first plane carrying about 120 citizens landed in Vilnius on March 6. Since Lithuania does not have a national air carrier, the government has contracted flydubai. Meanwhile, the European Union covered 75% of the flight’s cost.
Other EU countries have also organized assistance. Latvia has allocated €752,000 for evacuations, allowing its citizens to pay only about €350 per ticket. For Estonian citizens, the rescue flight costs €400.
The comparison with the supposedly free Belarusian evacuation also needs clarification. Belavia does carry those who already had tickets for canceled flights without extra fees. For everyone else, however, the cost of a ticket from Dubai to Minsk in April ranges from €400 to €1,000, as stated on the airline’s website.
Thus, the attempt to portray Belarus as the only “merciful state” overlooks that many other countries in the region, including Lithuania, organized rescue flights for their citizens in March 2026.