VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — The European Union has promised to help Lithuania cope with an influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, which the Baltic nation says has been encouraged by authorities in neighboring Belarus as part of their standoff with the West. During a visit to Lithuania’s border village of Medininkai Tuesday, European Council President Charles Michel pledged that “we will do our utmost to provide more support so that the Lithuanian authorities can overcome these difficulties and find solutions.” Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has announced that his country would halt cooperation with the EU on stemming illegal migration in retaliation to bruising economic sanctions the bloc slapped on Belarus over the diversion of a passenger jet in May.
