NATO jets on Tuesday morning shot down an unidentified drone that entered
Lithuanian airspace from neighboring Belarus, Lithuanian Defense Minister
Robertas Kaunas said. The drone was intercepted over central Lithuania near
Pratkunai, close to the Kruonis hydropower plant; air-raid sirens sounded in the
Vilnius region and in Kaunas before the shootdown. It is the first time NATO has
shot down a drone over Lithuanian territory and the latest incursion on NATO’s
eastern flank, after similar incidents in Latvia and Estonia in recent months,
amid intensifying Ukraine–Russia air exchanges and rising incidents of drones
being disrupted or veering off course.
