Residents of Lithuania’s capital told to shelter as drone alarm underlines NATO’s eastern jitters
Officials said NATO air policing was activated after the suspected drone triggered shelter orders and briefly shut Vilnius Airport.
- On Wednesday, Lithuania ordered an emergency shelter alert in Vilnius, moving President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene to safety while closing Vilnius Airport airspace due to detected drone activity near Belarus.
- Lithuania, a NATO and European Union member, borders Russia-allied Belarus and Kaliningrad, straining security as recent stray drone incidents contributed to Latvia's government collapse last week.
- Lithuanian Foreign Minister Budrys on Tuesday accused Russia of "deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace," while Western officials suspect Russian electronic jamming caused the detected drone activity.
- Russia has renewed threats to retaliate if Baltic nations are complicit in using Ukrainian drones, despite Ukraine previously apologizing for an "unintended incident" involving stray drones.
- The alert marks the first major shelter mobilization in a European Union capital since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, underscoring growing insecurity on NATO's eastern fringe.
186 Articles
186 Articles
Defense News
The Straits TimesLithuanian lawmakers shelter, Vilnius air traffic suspended due to drone incursion
Lithuanian lawmakers were forced to shelter underground on Wednesday and air traffic at Vilnius airport was temporarily suspended after a drone violated the country’s airspace, the latest in a series of security incidents in the Baltic region.The NATO and European Union member state also suspended train traffic around the capital Vilnius, while schools and kindergartens were told to take children to shelters.“Immediately take shelter in a safe p…
VILNA, Lithuania. – An alert for the possible incursion of a drone forced on Wednesday to evacuate political leaders, suspend air and land traffic and take thousands of people to shelters in the capital of Lithuania, in an episode unheard of since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and that re-emphasizes the growing tension on the eastern flank of NATO.The emergency warning was issued by the Lithuanian Army around 10.20 (lo…
Lithuanian Capital City Suspends Flights Due to Drone Warning
The airport in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius suspended flights on May 20 due to a drone warning, the country’s national crisis management center said. The alert was issued after a drone was seen in the neighbouring nation of Belarus flying toward Lithuania, the center said, adding that the drone’s origin had not been confirmed. Citizens in Vilnius were asked to take shelter. The sighting was the latest in a series of security incidents in …
Drone alarm in Vilnius stopped airport, radar from Belarus discovered; EU blames Russia and Belarus.
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