Drone From Belarus Breaches Lithuanian Airspace Again This Month

For the second time this month, an unidentified drone has entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus.

LRT reported on this.

On the morning of July 28, authorities detected an unknown drone near Vilnius. According to Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre, the drone likely originated from Belarusian territory.

The Centre noted that the drone had been flying at an altitude of approximately 200 meters and had been last tracked in the area around the Lithuanian capital between 4:40 and 5:00 a.m.

Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence has yet to confirm whether the drone had any military purpose but stressed the urgent need to strengthen security measures around the capital.

Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chair of the parliamentary National Security Committee, called the situation concerning and urged for improved systems to detect, identify, and monitor aerial threats.

He warned that in the event of aggression from Belarus or Russia, the country might struggle to respond promptly to threats – even from relatively simple drones.

This marks the second such incident in a month. In the previous case, an unidentified drone – later identified as a ‘Gerbera’ – crashed near a closed checkpoint at the Shumsk border crossing, just about one kilometer from the Belarusian border.

At the time, the drone was mistakenly identified as a Shahed, which caused panic and led to the urgent evacuation of state leaders to shelters, reports BNS.

In addition to Lithuania, drone incursions have also been recorded in Moldova. In November 2024, Moldovan police discovered a Russian decoy drone called ‘Parodiya.’

Similar incidents have occurred in Romania, where, besides reconnaissance and kamikaze drones, the country’s airspace has also been violated by cruise missiles.

Notably, during one of the large-scale missile attacks on Ukraine, the enemy used Kh-101 missiles that flew over Romanian and Moldovan territory before entering Ukrainian airspace near the Chernivtsi region.