Drone Wreckage Found in Lithuania, Preliminary Reports Suggest it is Ukrainian

Residents in Lithuania discovered drone wreckage in a field that preliminary reports suggest may belong to a Ukrainian drone.

According to LRT, the debris was found on May 17, 2026, in a field near the village of Samane in Lithuania’s Utena district.

Authorities are now investigating where the drone came from and whether it is actually of Ukrainian origin. The outlet noted that, according to Lithuania’s military authorities, the drone had entered Latvian airspace on Sunday before later leaving it.

“Based on the preliminary information, the markings on the wreckage, and the materials shared by our colleagues say this is most likely a Ukrainian drone,” said Vilmantas Vitkauskas.

Meanwhile, preliminary information indicates that the discovered drone was not carrying a warhead or any other explosives.

Because the drone was reported on the evening of May 17, police and other emergency services suspended the search overnight and resumed operations at dawn on May 18.

The possible entry of Ukrainian drones into the airspace of the Baltic states is not considered accidental. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that Ukrainian intelligence possesses information confirming that the Russian side is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones toward Baltic countries.

According to him, such incidents are later used as part of information provocations.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that he and other Ukrainian officials remain in constant contact with partners in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland regarding drone incidents and are quickly sharing relevant information.

A similar case occurred earlier when a Ukrainian drone entered Finnish airspace and later crashed in Finland. On March 30, 2026, reports revealed that Russian electronic warfare systems had diverted the drone into the country’s airspace.

Speaking to Militarnyi, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi stressed that the drone was never intentionally directed toward Finland. He said the most likely cause of the incident was interference from Russian electronic warfare systems, which forced the drone off its original course.

On the morning of March 29, the Finnish Air Force scrambled two F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets after several unidentified objects approached the country’s territorial waters.

It later became known that one drone crashed north of the city of Kouvola, while another fell east of the city. Police said that no one was injured in the incident, and the crash sites were cordoned off for investigation.

The Finnish Air Force later clarified that its pilots visually identified one of the objects south of Kouvola as a Ukrainian AN-196 drone.