NATO Fighter Downs Suspected Belarusian Drone

A NATO fighter jet shot down a drone in Lithuania shortly after midnight on Tuesday, according to the Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center.

The drone, which likely came from Belarus, was shot down near the village of Pratkunai in southern Lithuania, not far from Kaunas, the country’s second-largest city, a spokesperson for the center said. Its origin is not yet known, he added.

A drone warning had been issued earlier in the capital, Vilnius, and the surrounding region.

Fighters from NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission have been patrolling the skies over Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia since the Baltic countries joined the alliance in 2004. Aircraft from the mission shot down stray Ukrainian drones over Estonia in May and over Latvia in June and August.

Military drones that strayed into the airspace of Russia’s neighbors have raised concerns that the war in Ukraine is spilling over NATO’s borders.

Ukraine has intensified long-range drone attacks on Russia, including in the Baltic Sea region, and several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Ukraine blamed Russia for the incidents, claiming that Russia had influenced the drones’ trajectories through electronic warfare.

(Reuters, im)