Kubilius urges Lithuania, its neighbors to build drone wall, prepare for mass production

VILNIUS - After a Russian-made Gerbera drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus last week, European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius has urged Lithuania and other countries in the region to build a "drone wall" and prepare for mass drone production.

"This incident shows that it's possible for a drone like that to breach Lithuanian airspace. Whether Lithuania is ready to defend against such threats - and whether it has the necessary capabilities - remains an open question," Kubilius told LRT Television on Monday.

"That's why I keep calling on Lithuania and other countries in the region working on what is called the Eastern Border Defense Plan - a physical protection plan that primarily involves installing a range of physical barriers on the ground - to include not only a physical wall but also the creation of a drone wall," he said.

In May 2024, Agne Bilotaite, then the interior minister, announced that regional countries had agreed to create a drone wall, using drones to monitor the border and deploying anti-drone systems to stop drones used for smuggling and provocations by hostile states.

However, in early March this year, Lithuania and Estonia failed to secure European Union funding for the project.

Kubilius said there are "few signs" that Lithuania or the Baltic states are adequately prepared to respond to possible drone attacks from Russia.

"It's not so much about manufacturing or stockpiling drones right now, but about learning and training teams of people who could very quickly produce the drones needed at any given moment and in the quantities required for the drone wall," the Lithuanian member of the European Commission said.

"I believe Lithuania and the Baltic states need a joint strategy not only for building a physical border wall, but also for developing a drone wall, including preparations for mass production," he added.

Last Thursday, Lithuanian border guards spotted a flying object. According to the military, it remained in Lithuanian airspace for about three minutes before crashing near the closed Sumskas border crossing.

Initially, officials suspected the airspace had been breached by a Shahed drone, the type Russia uses in its war against Ukraine. However, the State Border Guard Service later said that, based on preliminary data, officers from the Kena border crossing point had recorded a flying object resembling a homemade aircraft entering from Belarus and falling to the ground.

The unmanned aircraft crashed near the closed Sumskas checkpoint, about one kilometer from the Belarusian border.