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NATO fighter jets shot down a drone over Lithuania, the Baltic state’s president said Tuesday, in the latest security incident on the alliance’s eastern flank during Russia’s war with Ukraine. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — NATO members sharing a long border with Russia — regularly report drone incursions since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”A drone that just entered Lithuanian airspace was destroyed by NATO fighter jets,” Gitanas Nauseda wrote in a post on X.”With Russia intensifying its aggression against Ukraine, such readiness is vital for our region,” he added.

According to Lithuanian national radio LRT, citing preliminary data from the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), the drone came from neighbouring Belarus and was heading west. It fell in a rural area near Lake Kaunas, in the centre of the country, the broadcaster added. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys in a post on X thanked allies “whose presence helps protect our skies and strengthens our security”. “This is best example of Allied unity and resolve in action — sending a clear message that NATO stands vigilant, committed, and ready,” he added.- ‘Securing airspace’ -Poland also announced “aviation operations” had commenced in its airspace “due to the activity of Russian Federation’s jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory”.

These actions are of a “preventive nature” and are aimed at “securing airspace and its protection, especially in areas adjacent to threatened regions”, it added. Belarusian opposition chief in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, on Tuesday condemned the incident.”We refuse to accept our country being turned into a source of danger to Europe,” Tikhanovskaya wrote on X. “Lasting security requires a sovereign, democratic Belarus whose territory is never used against its neighbours.”- Latest incident -In recent months, states across NATO’s eastern flank have faced a raft of hostile actions from Moscow and Minsk ranging from drone incursions to cyberattacks.

A NATO fighter shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia in May, the first interception of a foreign drone in the airspace of a Baltic state by NATO’s air police since the war began. Russia has been diverting Ukrainian drones meant to strike industrial facilities and oil terminals in the Saint Petersburg region, located on the Gulf of Finland, according to European officials. The Lithuanian president said in early July he wanted his country to take part in Western nuclear deterrence against Moscow. Since then, the country has started the process of lifting the constitutional ban on storing nuclear weapons on its soil.

Last Friday, Russia threatened to aim its nuclear warheads at Lithuania if the Baltic state hosted any weapons from the nuclear arsenals of its NATO allies on its territory. The three Baltic countries were turned into Soviet republics by Moscow at the end of World War II and quickly applied to join NATO and the EU following the Soviet collapse in 1991. Many analysts believe that the small countries, which became EU and NATO members in 2004, will be the first point of attack should Russia decide to test the Western alliance’s resolve to defend its members. burs/yad/cw

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 10:04:44 GMT