Fighter jet’s drone pursuit blast wakes residents in Biržai district

A rocket fired by a fighter jet pursuing a drone exploded near Lebeniškiai village in Lithuania’s Biržai district overnight, waking some residents. The attempt to shoot down the drone was unsuccessful, LRT reported. None of the 11 people interviewed said they had considered seeking shelter.

Fighters protecting the airspace of the Baltic states pursued the drone after it entered Lithuania, tracking it from Kaunas. The decision was made to try to destroy it in a less populated area. The rocket exploded in fields near Eiminiškiai, a village close to Vabalninkas town that has one inhabited homestead.

Residents of Lebeniškiai, about a kilometre from the explosion, said the blast was loud enough to shake their windows. Some did not wake up, while several residents said they had no mobile phones and received no warning alerts.

Valentina Selezniova said a warning message woke her and her husband. She got dressed and waited, but did not look for shelter because, she said, the village has none. “Where would you go?” she said. She described the blast as a tremendous bang and said she was frightened. She learned later that a fighter jet had attacked the drone.

Her neighbour Povilas Žukovas did not receive an alert because his family does not use a mobile phone. He said his wife woke after hearing a sound and initially thought a water pump had switched on. Asked whether he had sought shelter, he joked that there was nowhere to go and suggested people could get into a deeper ditch and wait for the danger to pass.

The Žukovs have a cellar, but he was unsure whether he would use it. The school hall and basements at the local administrative office in Vabalninkas are about eight kilometres away, he said.

Virginijus Pauliukevičius slept through the blast. His wife heard two bangs and saw flashes in the distance, then woke him. He later heard the fighter jets and learned more from his wife, whose relative lives in Eiminiškiai, closest to the explosion. The relative said he had received several warning messages but switched off his phone and ignored them.

Sergejus Selezniovas, who lives closer to the woods beyond which the explosion occurred, got dressed after receiving an alert but stayed at home. “We got dressed, walked around and watched what was going on,” he said.