Putin’s border drone strikes show ‘desperation’, NATO chief says

Lithuanian military personnel initiated a series of drills spanning 12 towns in the southern part of the country from September 14th to the 18th, aiming to enhance their capability to handle various military threats, as per LRT's report. The exercises are set to continue through September 18th. Poland's eastern border has been under intensified security scrutiny due to Russia's ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Lithuania shares its southern boundary with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus, and its land routes connect the Baltic states to Poland and the wider NATO framework. The training incorporates a diverse range of assets including drones, boats, weaponry, and wheeled military and civilian transport vehicles, with soldiers both marching on foot and traveling by vehicle during daytime and nighttime.

Notably, the army has ruled out the use of simulated ammunition or pyrotechnics during these maneuvers. Recent incidents at Vilnius International Airport on September 13th saw the airport briefly shut down for 38 minutes following radar signals that initially alarmed personnel, suspected to be a drone. However, an Italian air force detachment based at Šiauliai, as part of NATO's Baltic Air Defense mission, deployed a fighter jet which determined the contact to be a large flock of birds.

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Center, explained that a significant aggregation of birds in a single direction can appear on radar as a drone-like entity. Poland reported on September 14th that its military had discovered what appears to be a Russian military drone near its Baltic Sea coast.

Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that preliminary inspections suggest the object to be a Russian Gerbera drone, a low-cost long-range drone often used as a decoy but capable of carrying explosives. It drifted ashore under observation, with no violation of Polish airspace since late July. A parallel multinational drill named Strong Griffin 2026 is also being conducted in Lithuania's Švenčionys district near the Belarusian frontier.

This exercise, spanning from September 2nd to 20th, involves roughly 2,500 soldiers and 500 pieces of equipment from Lithuania, along with 500 from the United States, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Ukraine, and Moldova, according to LRT. The drills encompass a broad spectrum of drone operations, ranging from reconnaissance to the neutralization of enemy drones.

European intelligence agencies anticipate an escalation in security threats rather than a decline. Dutch military intelligence forecasts a regional conflict against NATO within a year following the conclusion of the Ukraine conflict, and highlights a surge in preparations for sabotage activities across Europe since mid-2025.