NATO fighters destroy drone over Lithuania as teams search for debris

NATO air policing troops destroyed a drone in Lithuanian airspace, and special services were searching for its wreckage early Tuesday in Pratkūnai village in Kaišiadorys district, LRT reported.

The area was secured by military police, while army experts, firefighters, police officers and a medical crew worked at the scene. Bright floodlights illuminated part of the site, where the drone or its debris was believed to be located.

LRT journalists and a photographer were not allowed to approach the village outskirts. The restricted area included a small wooded area reached by a narrow village road.

“There are only a few residents here, and there are not many homesteads,” LRT journalist Jurga Bakaitė reported from the scene. She said curious onlookers had also arrived after hearing where the drone had been brought down. Official comments were expected on Tuesday morning.

The type of drone remained unclear, as did whether it was a combat drone carrying explosives. Representatives of the Lithuanian military had not yet provided further details.

Residents in nearby areas recorded the sound of NATO fighter jets. One resident of Ringailiai village in the Nemaitonys eldership posted an audio recording in which aircraft could be heard flying shortly after midnight.

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Centre, told LRT radio that the drone had probably entered Lithuania from Belarus. An air threat warning was initially issued for Vilnius city and district, Trakai district and Elektrėnai district, and later for Kaunas County as the drone continued flying.

Air threat warnings have been issued in Lithuania in recent months as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. However, this was the first time a drone had been shot down over the country. A warning issued to residents in southeastern Lithuania on Sunday was later attributed to radar detection of a flock of birds.