Lithuania Orders Residents to Shelters After Unidentified Flying Object Enters Airspace

Lithuania told residents in central and northern parts of the country to seek shelter for about an hour on Sunday morning after an unidentified flying object entered its airspace, according to the army and the national crisis management centre. Defence minister Robertas Kaunas said the object was likely a drone that came in from Poland, and he has proposed a joint investigation with his Polish counterpart. Poland’s military said it was also checking a possible violation of its own airspace by an unidentified object.

NATO Response and Drone Debris Investigation

During the red alert, NATO air police fighters were scrambled and Kaunas airport, near the country’s second-largest city, was temporarily closed. Cloudy weather stopped the pilots from identifying the object visually, so no attempt was made to shoot it down. After the object vanished from radar, army personnel began checking possible drone debris near Juodzionys village in the north. Some of the debris hit a civilian vehicle, the minister said.

Drones Over the Baltic and NATO’s Eastern Flank

Latvia briefly issued a yellow air warning in border regions, citing a possible threat. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered NATO airspace in the Baltic region in recent months, and Kyiv says Russian signal jamming pushed them off course. This has raised fears that the war in Ukraine is spilling over NATO’s borders.