Nausėda says Russia hides its role in hybrid attacks

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said Russia deliberately conceals its involvement in hybrid attacks while seeking to keep Western countries under pressure, LRT reported on Monday.

“It tries to cover its tracks, but at the same time it wants to maintain tension, so that you in the West know that if you help Ukraine, the same could happen to you,” Nausėda told TV3 News.

European officials have recently warned that Russia’s military and intelligence services have intensified efforts to wage hybrid warfare. Lithuanian politicians have linked Russia to an attempted arson attack on Sunday at premises in Vilnius used by US company SpaceX, where Starlink equipment is stored.

Authorities are investigating similar incidents in Bulgaria, where several antennas used to connect to the Starlink satellite network were set on fire. In September, a fire broke out at a Starlink satellite communications station in central Poland.

Nausėda said NATO needed a clearer strategy for responding to such attacks, adding that concerns about further escalation sometimes deter action. He also called for Russia’s special services and intelligence agencies to be designated terrorist organisations. He said attacks linked to the Kremlin had affected countries that had traditionally taken a more cautious approach towards Moscow.

Nausėda says drone alert procedures can be improved

After a drone entered Lithuania from Poland over the weekend, Nausėda said the country’s air defence systems had worked but that procedures for warning residents could be improved. He said the issue would be discussed at the next meeting of the State Defence Council.

Nausėda said Lithuania had received no information from Poland about the drone and suggested the country could take additional precautions by responding more quickly in regions where a drone is likely to enter, while avoiding unnecessary disruption elsewhere. Lithuanian officials said Poland had not detected the aircraft on its radar.

The drone crashed and exploded in the Pasvalys district, damaging a civilian car. Ukraine apologised for the incident and said the drone may have been diverted by Russian electronic warfare equipment.

Nausėda said additional indicators were needed to determine whether an object posed a threat to people. He also said airspace detection remained a challenge for all countries, including those with functioning air defence systems, and called for faster and more flexible decision-making on defence spending.