Lithuania to automate shelter access after drone incursion

Lithuania plans to automate access to public shelters during red alerts after a drone entered the country’s airspace overnight, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said Wednesday, according to LRT.

After a meeting of the National Security Commission, Sinkevičius said people should be able to enter a shelter without waiting for someone to arrive with a key. The government wants a technological system that would unlock shelters automatically when a red alert is issued, he said, noting that access could be a matter of minutes.

The government also plans to centralise the activation of emergency sirens during 2027. Lithuania has about 1,000 sirens, many of them operated by municipalities, Sinkevičius said. A central system would allow them to be activated from one place.

Alerts were sent to many residents overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday after a drone entered Lithuanian airspace. Some areas received a yellow alert and others a red one. NATO fighter jets were scrambled but did not shoot down the drone, which later left the country. Belarus informed Lithuanian authorities that the drone was approaching, Sinkevičius said.

The prime minister said officials had responded on time and that he had no major criticism of their actions. He said the drone and balloon sightings had also disrupted civil aviation and inconvenienced travellers, but did not describe the night’s events as chaos.

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said Lithuanian radar had detected the drone and that fighter jets fired two missiles at it. One missile self-destructed, and its fragments were found and secured while an investigation is carried out. Kaunas did not comment on the second missile. He said the Lithuanian military and NATO would investigate, but not all findings would be made public.

The Lithuanian army chief also said a fighter jet carrying a missile had landed safely.