Lithuanian lawmakers were forced to take shelter in underground bunkers on Monday and air traffic at Vilnius airport was temporarily suspended after a drone violated the country's airspace, Reuters reported, in the latest in a series of security incidents in the Baltic region.
Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, has also suspended rail traffic around the capital Vilnius, while schools and kindergartens have been ordered to take children to shelters.
"Immediately take shelter in a safe place, take care of your loved ones, wait for new recommendations," the Lithuanian military said in a warning sent to citizens in Vilnius.
A warning was also issued in the parliament building in Vilnius, where MPs and ministers were present.
Speaking to Reuters from an underground shelter, Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said military aircraft were trying to neutralize the threat.
"A NATO airspace surveillance mission has been activated and is targeting a drone detected in Lithuanian airspace," Kaunas said.
The warning came a day after a NATO fighter jet shot down an alleged Ukrainian drone over Estonia.
If the drones are coming from Ukraine, they are not there because Ukraine wanted to send a drone to Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia. They are there because of a reckless, illegal all-out attack by Russia, said Mark Rutte
The Baltic states, all of which strongly support Ukraine, have blamed Moscow for the drone incidents, claiming it is diverting Ukrainian drones from their intended targets in Russia, but have not provided evidence for these claims.
The Kremlin said today that it was monitoring the situation. It had previously accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to launch drones from their territory, a charge they strongly deny.
Kaunas said the drone had flown in from Latvia. Authorities said it was not known whether it had crashed or left Lithuanian territory. NATO fighter jets were unable to locate it.
Reuters writes that the incident lasted about an hour, after which the air threat was lifted. Air and rail traffic have been restored.
Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including in the Baltic Sea region. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of NATO members Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all of which border Russia.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Alliance's response to the incident in Estonia was "calm, decisive and proportionate."
"If the drones are coming from Ukraine, they are not there because Ukraine wanted to send a drone to Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia. They are there because of a reckless, illegal all-out attack by Russia," he told reporters in Brussels today.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that "the Ukrainian-Russian war may soon lead to a situation in which we will have to react decisively."
The Latvian government resigned last week over its handling of the drone incursion.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristian Michal told parliament today that he is seeking broader powers to deal with threats from military drones, with the aim of addressing gaps in their detection, response and protection of critical locations.
"We need to enable defense forces to better identify military drones and counter them," Michal said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris announced on the Iks platform that the incidents were "a transparent act of desperation (by Russia) - an attempt to sow chaos and divert attention from the simple reality: Ukraine is hitting the Russian military machine hard."
"My message to the Kremlin: nice try. Failed again."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian military is closely monitoring the situation regarding drones flying through the airspace of the Baltic states and is formulating an appropriate response, Russian state news agency TASS reported today.
Drone expert Hans Livang of the Swedish Defense University said that it is technically possible to manipulate Ukrainian drones and, to some extent, control them if they are guided using satellite communication systems such as GPS or GNSS.
"But it's probably reasonable to assume that they move in many other ways, for example that they have a camera that simply recognizes objects, like roads, to guide them," he said.
Livang said the Ukrainian drones are similar to Iranian and Russian "Shahed" drones and can be guided by monitoring local mobile phone signals. He added that the relatively small number of errant drones suggests that Russia has limited capabilities to manipulate them.
"If it were the case that the Russians could successfully direct drones over the Baltics, we would probably see more of them than we have so far," he said.
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