Varėna residents say drone crossed Lithuanian airspace

Residents of Varėna district told LRT Radio they are convinced a drone flew over the area early Sunday, after an unidentified object crossed Lithuanian airspace for about 20 minutes before heading into Russia’s Kaliningrad region.

LRT reported that local news portal Varenaplius.lt shared a recording made by a resident. The sound closely resembles that of a drone in flight.

Saulius Jočys, a former officer and resident of Perloja in Varėna district, said he heard the possible drone for about a minute to a minute and a half. He went outside to look but could only hear the object because it was dark.

“The sound was similar, perhaps just slightly more muffled. I heard it for about one to one and a half minutes. I went outside out of curiosity because I have heard the sounds of various drones several times. The sound moved in the direction of Druskininkai and later disappeared,” he said.

Another Varėna district resident, Virginijus Kašėta, said the sound was audible even with the windows closed. After listening to the recording, he said it was almost identical to what he had heard early Sunday.

“The sound was the same, only perhaps somewhat quieter. With the windows closed, it was much quieter in the house, but it could still be heard,” Kašėta said.

He added that the Grybų šventė mushroom festival was taking place that weekend, so he initially thought the noise might have come from a passing vehicle. He said residents became uneasy because they received no phone alerts and did not know what was flying overhead or whether Lithuanian authorities had detected it. Kašėta said he did not report the possible drone to the emergency number 112 because he had only heard, rather than seen, it.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces said military air force radars detected the object at 4:05 a.m. Sunday near Varėna as it crossed Lithuanian territory and entered Russia’s Kaliningrad region. It is believed to have arrived from Belarus.

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Centre, said residents had also heard the object but that radar data made it difficult to identify precisely. He described the detected object as a point moving at a certain speed and altitude through a particular area.

The object travelled in a fairly clear direction towards Kaliningrad and covered about 60 to 70 kilometres in Lithuanian airspace, Vitkauskas said. He added that this was enough time for it to cause damage.

The Lithuanian Armed Forces said there was not enough information to determine exactly what the object was, but no direct threat to residents or facilities had been identified. Authorities will also examine how Belarusian and Russian services responded when the object crossed their airspace. Vitkauskas said it could have been a smuggling drone, with 22 such drones recorded in September alone.