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An unidentified drone suspected of having come from Bélarus entered the Lithuanian airspace on Monday, according to a local point of sale.
Darius Buta, a representative of the National Crisis Management Center in Lithuania, told LRT public broadcaster that a drone had been spotted at an altitude of about 650 feet near the capital of Vilnius.
“This morning, the residents received reports on a drone which most likely stole in the territory of Lithuania from Belarus,” said Buta at the point of sale. “The police have activated all the forces.”
Nowsweek contacted the Belarusian and Lithuanian foreign ministries by e-mail by email for comments.
Why it matters
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but borders several nations, such as Lithuania, which are. Article 5 stipulates that an attack on a member of NATO would be treated as an attack on them all.
In this case, it does not seem that Lithuania has been attacked and no injury was reported at the time of the editorial staff. However, the drone incident highlights the proximity of NATO members with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
What to know
Efrem Lukatsky, File / AP Photo
The residents first pointed out the drone around 5:55 a.m. local time by TLR. It sounded “like that in Ukraine where the drones fly, a rumble,” said a resident at the exit.
The Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Dovilė Šakalienė, told the LRT that the drone was perhaps planned in Ukraine, blocked by kyiv’s air defenses.
The Air Force of Ukraine said that it had stopped 309 of the 324 attack and lure drones launched against Ukraine on Monday during the night. One of the drones struck an apartment building in kyiv, injuring a 3 -year -old child and seven other people, according to The Kyiv Independent.
The Lithuanian BNS release reported that Vilnius would add more defenses to its border after this drone incident, with Šakalienė saying to journalists: “We will take additional measures to ensure more effective border surveillance in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and we will use additional military forces for that.”
She added that there is “no indication” that this drone incident was deliberate.
Šakalienė told the media that the Belarus organizes Russian and Belarusian military exercises in mid-September for 13,000 soldiers planned, which could increase the number of cross-border incidents.
Russia and Bélarus, which border Ukraine as well as Lithuania, make up the state of the Union and its leaders signed at the end of 2024 in Minsk a treaty, which, according to Putin, would allow the two countries to use “all the forces and means available” within the framework of mutual mutual defense obligations.
President Belarusian, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, was re -elected to his seventh term in January 2025, during an election deemed the imposture of Western governments.
Andrii Marienko / AP Photo
What people say
Lithuanian Lithuano-Goalian Defense Minister told LRT: “Without a doubt, on the one hand, it is really very rewarding that the Ukrainian defense is able to disorient the drones that go to them, but these drones with burned brains can walk in all territories, they walk in ours and Poland, and will cause various consequences.”
Darius Buta, a representative of the National Crisis Management Center in Lithuania told LRT: “There is currently no reliable information on the threat posed by this object. We are trying to find where the drone is, where it can have fallen.”
What happens next
An investigation into the drone is underway.
