NATO fighters shot down a drone over Lithuania. This was announced today by the president of the Atlantic Alliance member country, Gitanas Nauseda. “A drone that violated Lithuania’s airspace during the night was quickly shot down by NATO fighters,” Nauseda wrote on the social network X without specifying which country the aircraft belonged to.
“As Russia escalates its aggression against Ukraine, such preparation is vital for our region. Together with our NATO allies, Lithuania will defend its airspace,” the president added. “Our most sincere thanks go to the allies, whose presence contributes to protecting our skies and strengthening our security”, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kestutis Budrys wrote on X, according to whom “NATO remains vigilant, committed and ready”. According to the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT, which cites the National Center for Crisis Management (NKVC), the drone crashed in a rural area near Lake Kaunas, in the central part of the country.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – former Soviet republics bordering Russia – regularly record drone intrusions into their territories. On May 19, a NATO fighter shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia: it was the first interception of a foreign drone in the skies of a Baltic state by the NATO air police since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to the Europeans, Moscow deliberately diverts from their trajectory Ukrainian drones aimed at hitting industrial plants and oil terminals in the St. Petersburg region, located on the Gulf of Finland.