Drone causes air alert in Lithuania and Latvia

Uthe drone triggered an air alert in Lithuania and Latvia, leading to the launch of NATO fighters this morning, and ended up crashing near Pasvalys, in northern Lithuania, near the border with Latvia.

“ The Russian war against Ukraine is expanding to the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union,” wrote Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, on social network X, quoted by Efe, without detailing the origin of the drone.

Lithuanian public television, LRT, reported that the drone had entered Lithuania's airspace probably from Poland to the south.

After receiving information about the sound of an explosion in Pasvalys, the Lithuanian Military Police conducted an inspection of the territory and found fragments of the wreckage of a drone in the village of Juodžionys in Pasvalys district.

Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas stated that the object was detected by Lithuanian radar around 3:00 AM GMT (04:00 in Lisbon) and that NATO's air defense mission was activated, which took off fighters from the Šiauliai base to identify it.

“ Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, it was not possible to establish visual contact”, he explained.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius stated that the possibility of an act of sabotage should be assessed, according to LRT.

The head of the government called a meeting of the National Security Commission on Monday to investigate where the drone came from and where it began to be detected by radar.

The alert messages sent to mobile phones in areas of both countries urged residents to take refuge and look for a place where there were at least two walls between them and the outside.

Alerts were disabled in both countries shortly after 05:00 GMT (0600 in Lisbon).

The drone alert and its subsequent fall were the first serious incident since NATO fighters shot down a Russian drone lost on Lithuania on September 15.

On August 14, a NATO fighter also shot down a lost Ukrainian drone over Latvia.