NATO fighters shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace, probably from Belarus, according to the president of the Baltic country, Gitanas Nauseda. “A drone that had just entered Lithuanian airspace was destroyed by NATO fighter jets,” he wrote on his X social media account. “I thank the allied personnel for their quick response. As Russia intensifies its aggression against Ukraine, this level of readiness is vital for our region. Together with our NATO allies, Lithuania will defend its airspace,” he added.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense explained on X that it was NATO Italian pilots who neutralized the drone. “The Lithuanian Armed Forces and the Italian pilots participating in the NATO Air Defense Mission demonstrated a quick and responsible response. Thank you!“, it wrote.
According to the Lithuanian media LRT, a few minutes after midnight, the Fire and Rescue Department reported that a drone had entered Lithuanian territory and a possible air alert was declared in several districts of the country. About 30 minutes later, it was reported that the drone had been destroyed in the air.
The director of the National Crisis Management Center, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, told LRT Radio that the drone was shot down in Kaunas County, in the south-central part of the Baltic country that shares a border with Belarus and Russia through the Kaliningrad exclave. According to Vitkauskas, the drone was neutralized in a rural area, near the Kaunas lagoon.
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The Military Police of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the police, and agents from other services were quickly heading to the incident site to identify the origin and type of drone. According to preliminary data, the drone likely entered Lithuania from Belarusian territory, Vitkauskas told LRT Radio. “Yes, from Belarus. Then it passed through Lentvaris, in the Trakai district, and the object was moving westward,” he explained.
Lithuanian airports (LTOU) reported that due to the possible air threat, operations and airspace at Vilnius airport were temporarily restricted. In recent months, several drone incidents have occurred in the three Baltic countries, the most serious in May, when two unmanned aerial vehicles struck an empty oil storage facility in the town of Rezekne, in eastern Latvia.
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