NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, the day after the head of the alliance said strikes close to its territory would only increase its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia's full-scale invasion. Military officials in Lithuania, a NATO member, said the incident marked the first time that a drone had been shot down in its airspace. Authorities didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, saying further investigation was needed, but two senior officials said the device was likely carrying explosives.
Officials in other NATO countries, including Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Poland, have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in acts such as drone incursions, sabotage, arson and surveillance of defence facilitiesand in plans to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport. Separately, Denmark said Tuesday that one of its air force helicopters was fired on with flares as it was carrying out surveillance of a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea. Strikes close to NATO territory showed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror”, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday.
He spoke after a Russian drone struck a railway line near the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday shortly after senior visiting officials passed through. Rutte pledged to bolster the 32-nation alliance's own defences along its long eastern border with Russia and with Belarus, a Russian ally. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said the incidents in Lithuania and Denmark were not isolated but “part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe, testing our readiness and our resolve”.
The drone downed Tuesday in Lithuania fell near the village of Pratkūnai, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) west of the capital, Vilnius, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said Tuesday. Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the crisis centre, told Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT that the drone most likely entered from Belarus. It remained in Lithuanian airspace for about 30 minutes and flew along the outskirts of populated areas before being intercepted, he said.
Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said an explosive device was detected on the drone and neutralized by bomb-disposal experts. Menacing drones have repeatedly loomed over the skies of Lithuania, which shares borders with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Read more'A fight for your way of life’: Lithuania's culture minister on Ukraine and Russian disinformation In May, residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter, and the president and prime minister were taken to safe locations during an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus.
Stray Ukrainian drones have also previously crossed the border into Baltic airspace, including in May, when a NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Meanwhile, Denmark accused Russia of firing flares at one of its air force helicopters in connection with “routine photographic coverage” of a Russian frigate in waters off the port of Gedser in the Baltic Sea. Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said it was “not the first time” that Danish air force helicopters “carried out dangerous manoeuvres near Russian warships”.
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