NATO jets shoot down drone over Lithuania

Italian Eurofighter Typhoons affiliated with NATO shot down a drone that entered Lithuania’s airspace.

A drone entered Lithuania’s airspace before NATO fighter jets shot it down, the Baltic country’s president said in the early hours of Tuesday.

Gitanas Nauseda thanked the military alliance for its “swift response.”

“With Russia intensifying its aggression against Ukraine, such readiness is vital for our region. Together with our NATO Allies, Lithuania will defend its airspace,” Nauseda wrote on X.

Lithuanian national radio LRT cited preliminary data from the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC) as saying the drone came from neighboring Belarus, an ally of Russia. It was heading west as it was shot.

The broadcaster reported that the drone fell in a rural area near Lake Kaunas, in the center of Lithuania.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said the NATO response sent “a clear message that NATO stands vigilant, committed, and ready.”

Lithuania shares a border with Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad as well as Belarus. Since Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, such drone incursions have been common in Lithuania, as well as NATO members Latviaand Estonia.