NATO jets down drone in Lithuanian airspace for first time — SkimNews
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- NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace near the city of Kaunas shortly after midnight Tuesday, in what is thought to be the first time a NATO jet has destroyed a drone inside Lithuanian airspace.
- Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda confirmed the interception in a post on X, and the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence praised the 'swift and responsible response' of Lithuanian forces and Italian pilots serving in the NATO Air Defence Mission.
- The drone likely entered from neighbouring Belarus, and phone alerts were sent across the Vilnius region shortly after midnight (21:00 GMT) warning residents to 'find a safe place' and wait for the all-clear.
- Lithuanian authorities said the drone debris, scattered widely, will be collected and analysed to establish its origin, whether it was armed, and whether it was launched at Lithuania deliberately or strayed off course.
- Poland separately announced 'aviation operations' in its airspace Monday night 'due to the activity of Russian Federation's jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory,' describing the moves as preventive airspace protection.
- NATO jets have scrambled multiple times this year to shoot down stray drones that crossed into Estonia and Latvia, incidents Ukraine has attributed to Russian electronic warfare disrupting Ukrainian drone flight paths.
Why it matters: This marks the first NATO drone shootdown over Lithuania and comes as Belarus-origin and Russia-linked drone activity increasingly tests NATO's eastern border—Poland scrambled jets the previous night for Russian drones striking Ukraine—turning Baltic airspace defense from hypothetical into a routine operational demand for the alliance.
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