“Ghost buses”: there were suspicions about what the buses from Moldova to Russia were carrying through Lithuania

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The founder of the community “Learn to travel” noticed that a lot of routes Russia-Moldova and Russia-Ukraine (as well as return trips) pass through Lithuania. According to his suspicion, Russian soldiers travel from Moldova to Russia and back pretending to be tourists, often with forged documents.

“Because in Transnistria [Moldovos dalyje prie Ukrainos sienos] there is no way to replenish the deployed Russian troops, because the land routes are closed, the air routes are closed, so the Russians have to look for other routes”, explained R. Pogorelis, why it would be favorable for the Russians to travel on these routes.

According to his research, it is obvious that most buses pass through Lithuania and Latvia in transit, but there are also some that stop in Lithuania to pick up passengers. These buses usually do not stop at Vilnius or Kaunas stations. They stop at station entrances or suburban gas stations, according to R. Pogorelis, because they most likely do not have a permit to transport passengers to or from Lithuanian stations.

“It’s a ghost bus. No one knows when he will arrive and where he will stop,” one couple heard in the Daugapils station information.

According to R. Pogorel, they never got the bus that day, even though they had tickets to Kaunas. According to him, the buses do not come or come very late because they take time at the borders. However, Lithuanian travelers remain uninformed about these disturbances.

“Sometimes it takes 2 hours. Sometimes it takes 7, 8 hours. at the wall In fact, if you buy a ticket for such a bus, there is a very high probability that you will not leave or at least not leave on time. Travelers are left on the ice with such a ticket,” the interviewer warned.

Why are you traveling through Lithuania?

However, the buses do not encounter Lithuanian border guards, because there is no border control between Latvia and Lithuania. R. Pogorelis speculates that these routes bypass the Belarusian border because the Russian border guards are informed about these strange routes. On the other hand, it would be an additional hassle that they don’t need at all.

Giedrius Mišutis, advisor of the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, claimed that these buses would be checked at the border of Lithuania only if they reached Lithuania via Belarus.

However, in the eyes of the founder of “Pay to travel”, the services should check who is actually traveling on these buses together with Lithuanians. Also exchange information with Moldovan officials regarding these bus routes.

And G. Mišutis assured that Poland and Latvia, through which these buses cross the Schengen area, pay more attention to checking shuttle buses.

According to him, the majority of buses do not pass without being checked, and during the check the documents of all bus passengers are examined. Therefore, if the alleged Russian soldiers tried to enter the Schengen area with forged documents, he believes that they would have already been noticed.

The Department of State Security claimed to the tv3.lt news portal that it has no public comments on these issues.

R. Pogorelis collected a list of bus companies whose bus tickets are also sold to travelers from Lithuania: “Galiz”, “Cişmitrans” and several unknown carriers.

In the eyes of Pagorelis, the situation of bus routes through Lithuania to Ukraine is even more strange. GloBus Travel not only stops in Lithuania, but also travels through Ukraine and Russia. “Avtokombinat-1” runs from Moscow to Kharkiv, stops in Lithuania, but the officially registered route is Utena-Kharkiv.