Will NATO change the rules? Lithuania appeals after drone incident

Lithuania intends to take decisive steps regarding the security of its airspace. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevizius announced that the government had asked NATO to start consultations on changing the procedures that currently make it impossible to shoot down objects violating the country's borders without their visual identification.

I asked to start consultations with NATO. They will probably be carried out within a month so that we can re-examine the applicable procedures, said the head of the Lithuanian government in an interview with the public broadcaster LRT.

The Prime Minister explained that a fighter pilot may detect an object on radar but not be able to identify it visually due to cloud cover or bad weather conditions. In such a situation, the applicable procedures do not allow it to be shot down.

An unidentified drone violated Lithuanian airspace

There was an incident on Sunday that sparked a debate about safety. A drone flew from Polish territory into Lithuanian airspace, causing NATO fighters to pick up. However, the pilots failed to spot the object or confirm that it was a UAV, so it was not shot down. The remains of the drone were later found in the town of Juodzioniai, in the post-Posvol region.

Lithuanian authorities said it was a Ukrainian drone equipped with explosives. Ukraine apologized for the incident, pointing out that the drone may have veered off course due to the operation of Russian electronic warfare systems.