Bad weather prevents fighter jets from shooting down unidentified drone over Lithuania
Debris from an unidentified drone was found in Lithuania after fighter jets were scrambled but could not shoot it down due to weather conditions, with officials suspecting it entered from Poland, Lithuanian broadcaster LRT reported on Oct. 18.
On Sunday, Ukraine issued an apology after a suspected drone crashed in northern Lithuania, prompting the deployment of NATO fighter jets and shelter warnings. The exact origin of the drone and whether it carried explosives are currently under investigation. Lithuanian authorities instructed residents in central and northern areas to take shelter in the early hours of the morning following the detection of an unidentified flying object.
Debris from the crash damaged a moving civilian vehicle, but thankfully, no injuries were reported, according to Vilmantas Vitkauskas, chief of Lithuania's national crisis management centre. Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas suggested that the drone likely entered Lithuanian airspace from neighboring Poland and proposed a joint investigation with Warsaw.
Two Italian Eurofighter jets, operating under NATO command, were deployed to the scene. However, weather conditions hampered visual identification of the drone. Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors have faced multiple drone incursions during the ongoing conflict, with Ukrainian drones intended to hit targets in northwestern Russia occasionally straying into Baltic airspace and crashing.
Russian-made drones have also been reported to have entered Lithuania from Belarus. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda characterized Sunday's incident as further evidence of the war spilling across NATO's eastern boundary.
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