Seimas speaker: Lithuania has full range of measures to deal with airspace violators

VILNIUS - Lithuania and its allies have a full range of measures to eliminate airspace violators, and the air defense system is being developed consistently, Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas stated on Tuesday.

"I believe that last night’s events demonstrated that we have a full range of measures at our disposal to eliminate airspace violators," Olekas told reporters at the Seimas.

His remarks followed an incident where a drone that had flown into Lithuania’s airspace from Belarus was shot down in Kaisiadorys District by Italian fighter jets, stationed at the NATO Siauliai air base, in the early hours of Tuesday.

"We see that air police pilots carrying out air defense missions are capable of destroying such airspace violators. We have a whole range of measures, including ground-based, that can be used by both our military personnel and members of domestic (security) services... So if there were more (drones), more would probably be shot down," the parliamentary speaker asserted.

According to him, Lithuania has been acquiring air defense capabilities for 15 years now, and its readiness is only increasing, aided by the experience of the Ukrainians who are resisting the Russian invasion.

"Our services are preparing for that (airspace violations). Could they prepare better? Yes, they could. And they are moving in that direction. I believe that with every order and every project we implement, we are better defended than we have been so far," Olekas said.

Early Tuesday, as the unmanned aircraft flew over Lithuanian territory, potential air threat alert notifications were sent to residents in Vilnius and Kaunas Counties.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, potential air threat alerts have been issued repeatedly in Lithuania over the past few months. However, Tuesday’s incident marked the first time a drone had been shot down in the country’s airspace.

A NATO fighter shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia in May, in what was the first interception of a foreign drone in the airspace of a Baltic state by NATO's air police since the war began. In June, French fighter jets participating in NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission downed a drone over Latvia, which was the first time a drone had been shot down in that country‘s airspace.

Parts of southeastern Lithuania were last warned about a potential air threat on Sunday. However, this turned out to be a false alert triggered by a flock of birds.

Earlier that same day, military radars detected an object near Varena in southern Lithuania. The military said that the object, which likely came from Belarus, traveled across the country’s territory before entering the airspace of Russia’s Kaliningrad region.

However, officials did not issue an air threat alert over that incursion, citing insufficient information.