Dutch airline KLM and a smaller charter airline have halted all flights to Ukraine as the diplomatic situation with Russia continues to deteriorate, the AP reports. KLM’s caution while other big name European airlines are still operating flights is owed to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, in which 198 Dutch citizens and 100 others on their way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed after being shot down by Russian-backed rebels over Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports NATO officials are eyeing a potential longer term threat to the EU and NATO member Baltic states Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia is developing with the likelihood of a permanent Russian military presence in Belarus. “The unprecedented mobilization of Russian troops in Belarus is of particular concern,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said earlier this week. “It is very important for Lithuania to have an increased NATO partners’ presence in Lithuania,” she added. Lithuania shares a 40-mile long frontier with fellow NATO/EU member Poland, which runs from the triple border with Russian Baltic enclave Kaliningrad and Belarus. The stretch has been long considered a high strategic priority among NATO and Russian officials.