Lithuania was on high alert after authorities raised the alert level due to drone activity suspected to be coming from Belarus. In the capital Vilnius, citizens took shelter in underground parking lots and shelters, while flights and operations at the city's airport were temporarily suspended. The country's political and state leadership were moved to safe areas. Although there were no injuries, the incident caused great concern due to the increase in airspace violations by drones in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries.
The incident in Lithuania follows a series of similar incidents in the region. Ukrainian drones have crashed near a power plant in Estonia, while other unmanned vehicles have hit fuel tanks in Latvia. In Romania, NATO fighter jets have shot down drones that entered the alliance's monitoring zones. Analysts say the increased drone activity is linked to Ukraine's strategy to target Russian ports and energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, with the aim of weakening Russia's war economy.
In a statement from Brussels, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praised the alliance’s response to the recent drone incidents. He said NATO responded to the threats with “a calm, decisive and proportionate response.” A few days earlier, the alliance shot down a Ukrainian drone in southern Estonia with fighter jets. For its part, Ukraine apologized for what it called an “unintentional incident,” while various reports suggested the drone may have been diverted by Russian electronic interference.
The situation has also caused tensions in the Baltic states’ domestic politics. In Latvia, the government collapsed last week after disagreements over how to deal with errant drones that entered the country’s territory. This is considered one of the first cases where a political crisis has been directly linked to the threat of drone warfare, a new form of hybrid conflict that is changing the landscape of modern warfare. Meanwhile, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris accused Russia of deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into the airspace of the Baltic states and of waging disinformation campaigns against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “It is an attempt to sow chaos and divert attention from the fact that Ukraine is hitting the Russian military machine hard,” he told the Associated Press.
