Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.dw.com
Ukraine apologized Sunday after a suspected drone crashed in northern Lithuania, prompting shelter warnings and the deployment of NATO fighter jets.
The incident raised fresh concerns about the spillover of Russia’s war against Ukraine into NATO territory, although the drone’s origin and whether it carried explosives remained under investigation.
What happened in Lithuania?
Lithuanian authorities told residents in central and northern regions to seek shelter Sunday morning after detecting an unidentified flying object.
Debris damaged a moving civilian vehicle, but no one was injured, national crisis management centre chief Vilmantas Vitkauskas told Lithuanian radio.
Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said the drone probably entered from neighboring Poland. He proposed a joint investigation with Warsaw.
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Two Italian Eurofighter jets operating under NATO command were deployed, a NATO spokesperson said. Kaunas said weather conditions prevented visual identification.
Have similar incidents happened before?
Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors have experienced several drone incursions during the war.
Ukrainian drones intended to strike targets in northwestern Russia have previously strayed into Baltic airspace and crashed. Russian-made drones have also entered Lithuania from Belarus.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda described Sunday’s incident as another example of the war spilling onto NATO’s eastern flank.
Meanwhile, Lithuania said it was treating an attempted arson attack on a Starlink base station near Vilnius as Russia-linked sabotage aimed at undermining Ukraine’s military capacity.
National crisis management chief Vilmantas Vitkauskas said Sunday that authorities were searching for suspects who tried to set fire to the facility at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT Saturday).
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
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