Afət Ziyadqızı
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on the social media platform X that a drone that entered the country’s airspace had been destroyed by NATO fighter jets.
The Operative Information Center-OMM reports, citing the Lithuanian president’s statement, that foreign media outlets carried the information.
According to the reports, alerts over a drone threat were activated in Vilnius and surrounding areas on Tuesday morning. A representative of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said the drone’s origin had not yet been established, while the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said the country’s armed forces and Italian pilots serving in NATO’s air policing mission had responded promptly to the airspace violation. Nauseda stressed that maintaining this level of readiness was vital for the region as Russia expands its aggression against Ukraine. Moscow has not yet commented on the incident.
A drone believed to have entered Lithuania from Belarusian territory was also observed on Sunday, according to the reports. Airspace violations by drones have increased sharply across Europe amid Russia’s war against Ukraine. Poland has also reported preventive aviation operations in its airspace in response to Russian drones attacking targets in Ukraine. NATO fighter jets have been scrambled several times this year over unidentified or off-course drones in Estonia and Latvia.
