There was a telephone conversation between the Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Mr. Serhii Deineko and the Commander of the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Rustamas Liubajevas

They discussed the migration crisis at the borders of the EU countries with Belarus, and with which problems Lithuania faces in particular.

During the conversation, there was an exchange of information on the counteraction to irregular migration and which may affect the state of border protection of both countries.

Mr. Rustamas Liubajevas noted that Lithuanian border guards have strengthened border protection and daily respond to attempts of dozens of migrants to get from Belarus illegally. And in general this year it is already thousands of people. He also noted that the country has started active work on engineering strengthening of the border.

In his turn, Mr. Serhii Deineko noted that Ukraine also expects that at any moment the flow of illegal migrants can be directed toward Ukraine.

"This area of the border is now strengthened by additional forces. Furthermore, a special border operation was started at the border with Belarus, which is carried out by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine together with the National Guard, police and other involved reserves," Mr. Serhii Deineko said.

Discussing in detail the attempts of crossing the border illegally, the Commander of the State Border Guard Service of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Rustamas Liubajevas noted that movement of migrants is often carried out by small groups, sometimes several persons in order to complicate their detection and apprehension.

Mr. Serhii Deineko and Mr. Rustamas Liubajevas agreed on further cooperation and operational information exchange, which is currently extremely necessary for effective counteraction to the migration crisis. In addition, they agreed to send a group of experts from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine to Lithuania. On the spot, Ukrainian border guards will be able to get acquainted in detail about the actions of Lithuanian colleagues in border protection, learn the experience, including on cooperation between different forces involved in the border protection.

It should be stessed that a group of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine officers recently returned from Poland, where they also exchanged the experience with Polish colleagues in the field of border protection and combating illegal migration. They discussed in detail the measures taken by Poland to increase the state border security, including changes to the legislation, increasing the number of engineering constructions, density of border protection, work with the local citizens.