NATO downs drone flying over Lithuania from Belarus
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone over Lithuania, announced on Tuesday the president of this country, a member of the Atlantic Alliance, Gitanas Nauseda. According to Lithuanian national radio LRT, which cites preliminary data from the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC), the drone came from neighboring Belarus and was heading west. It crashed in a rural area near Kaunas Lake, in the center of the country.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on social media X that "a drone that violated Lithuania's airspace tonight was quickly shot down by NATO fighter jets," without specifying which country the unmanned aircraft belonged to. NATO has been conducting continuous air policing missions in the Baltic countries since 2004, when the three Baltic states joined the Alliance.
Nauseda stated that "as Russia intensifies its aggression against Ukraine, this kind of preparedness is vital" for the region. He added that Lithuania, together with its NATO allies, is prepared to defend its territory. The incident occurs in a context of growing tensions in the region, with Finland recently joining the French nuclear deterrence initiative.
