A NATO fighter jet shot down a drone in Lithuania shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Lithuania's national crisis management center said. The drone, which likely came from Belarus, was shot down near the village of Pratkunai in southern Lithuania, near Kaunas, the country's second largest city. Its origin is still unknown.
The downed drone was carrying explosives, the Baltic country's Defense Minister, Robertas Kaunas, reported this Tuesday. "According to definitive data, an explosive device has been detected. The bomb squads have neutralized it," Kaunas wrote on his Facebook social network account.
The drone was shot down approximately 100 kilometers northwest of Vilnius, between Kaunas and Kaiiadorys. This incident is not an isolated incident, but is part of a growing wave of airspace violations on Europe's eastern flank since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Incursions on other borders: countries such as Poland and Romania have repeatedly reported the fall of remains of missiles and drones in their border territories, which keeps European anti-aircraft defenses on high alert. The presence of military drones in the airspace of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is stoking concerns that the war in Ukraine is spilling over to NATO's northern borders with Russia.
On this occasion, after detecting it over Lithuanian skies, Italian NATO fighter planes shot down a drone, the first to be intercepted over Lithuanian skies. The Lithuanian military shared a video from the crash site, which showed debris scattered across the grass. Some pieces appeared to be made of wood and others were charred.
The bomb squad found an explosive charge and managed to neutralize it. The Lithuanian Government will deliver a note of protest to Belarus and has informed its allies of the incident. Lithuania now demands more means to protect NATO's eastern flank.
An alert for the presence of drones was issued last night in the capital, Vilnius, and the surrounding region: "Potential drone detected. Find a safe place. If you see a suspicious object, stay away and call 112. Wait for the alarm to pass," said the message in Lithuanian and English delivered to all mobile phones in the area. "It's the first time we've received this notification, but I'm not going to hide anywhere either," said Gediminas last night, a taxi driver on duty at that time and somewhat startled by the buzzing that came from the cell phones.
Shortly after, another alert arrived informing that the potential danger had passed. "They are military games, they are not able to decide whether it is dangerous or not to send messages to the population," said Andrius, a resident of the north of the city, who this morning came across the news of the first drone shot down in his country by NATO.
Fighters from NATO's Baltic Air Defense mission have patrolled the skies over Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since the Baltic countries joined the alliance in 2004. The mission's planes shot down Ukrainian drones diverted toward Estonia in May, and toward Latvia in June and August.
Ownership of the drone is still under investigation. The presence of military drones in the airspace of Russia's neighboring countries has fueled concerns that Russia's war in Ukraine is spreading beyond NATO borders. According to local media, last night's drone was shot down near the Kruonis pumped hydroelectric power station, the only pumped hydroelectric power station in the Baltic States.
Ukraine has intensified its long-range drone attacks against Russia, including in the Baltic Sea area, and several Ukrainian military drones have entered the airspace of Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Ukraine attributed the incidents to Russia, which had interfered with the drones' trajectories through electromagnetic warfare.
Nervousness has grown in the Baltic countries, which receive both Ukrainian drones diverted by Russia and Russian drones testing NATO's defenses and its ability and willingness to react. Lithuania acknowledged Sunday that the sighting of a suspected drone in its airspace early Sunday, which led authorities to close Vilnius airport and NATO to request a fighter jet, turned out to be a flock of birds. The air alert was quickly lifted and the airport reopened within 38 minutes, after the NATO plane visually identified it, according to the Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center. "In the first radar readings, the marks left by birds and drones may be similar," it added in a statement. As reported by Reuters, a fighter jet was requested from Siauliai in northern Lithuania, where the Italian air force is currently based as part of NATO's Baltic Air Defense mission.
The Baltic Air Police is a NATO collective defense mission created in 2004, just after the accession of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the alliance. As these three countries do not have their own combat aircraft capable of carrying out interceptions, the rest of the NATO members rotate their air fleets to protect this space uninterruptedly. Allied contingents operate not only from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, but also from Ämari Air Base in Estonia.
These NATO fighters already shot down Ukrainian drones over Estonia in May 2026, and over Latvia in June and August. Ukraine maintains that these devices (which were aimed at Russian infrastructure in Saint Petersburg) lose their way due to the electromagnetic and interference warfare that Russia applies in the Baltic region.
Both sides are watching each other closely. On September 11, fighters from the NATO air defense mission were deployed to identify two Russian SU-35S, two MIG-31 and one TU-134 aircraft. The aircraft were flying over international airspace from the mainland of the Russian Federation towards the Kaliningrad region. They flew without transponders or flight plans, and only the TU-134 maintained radio contact with the Regional Air Traffic Control Center.
