Lithuania experienced an uneasy night as a Lithuania air alert was declared across several regions on November 11 after a drone entered from Belarus.
NATO air defense fighters scrambled to intercept the target but failed to shoot it down. Preliminary official assessments indicate the airspace was breached by a Ukrainian drone that went off course due to Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems.
Decoys further complicated the situation in the airspace. Alongside the military drones, radar detected dozens of weather balloons, a traditional method used by smugglers to transport cigarettes from Belarus.
Lithuania Air Alert: Two Incidents and a Call from Minsk
Tracking systems detected two waves of threats. The head of the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC), Vilmantas Vitkauskas, reported that three drones initially appeared from the Belarusian side but did not cross into Lithuanian territory. One of them transited through Latvia toward northern Russia. Later, a fourth drone entered Lithuania near Druskininkai, briefly crossed the Polish border, and then headed north over Marijampolė, Kaunas, and Panevėžys before leaving Lithuanian airspace near Pasvalys.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas noted that the drones were heading to strike the Russian port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region. Notably, on the evening of November 10, the Belarusian military directly contacted Vilnius to warn of incoming unidentified targets. Chief Presidential Adviser Deividas Matulionis called the timely alert from Minsk a positive factor, pointing to the prompt and accurate operation of the public warning system.
Failed Interception and Smuggling Backdrop
NATO air policing patrol fighters made several attempts to destroy the lone drone but failed. Chief of the Defense Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Rear Admiral Giedrius Premeneckas, acknowledged that the initial strike was aborted because the target was flying over urban areas. Two subsequent attempts were unsuccessful, and one of the missiles fired by NATO pilots missed and crashed in the village of Eiminiškės in the Biržai district.
At 3:55 a.m., police activated the emergency plan “Shield.” As Police Department spokesperson Ramūnas Matonis explained, officers from the Aras anti-terrorist operations unit, forensic specialists, and military personnel cordoned off the crash site. Prime Minister: Debris from a missile fired by a NATO fighter was found near Biržai.
Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius reported that missile debris was found near Biržai. He also clarified that four drones and dozens of smugglers’ balloons were detected in the region.
