Drone That Crashed in Lithuania Was Ukrainian, Foreign Affairs Ministry Suspects Russian EW Interference

The drone that entered Lithuanian airspace on October 18 and crashed in Pasvalys District was Ukrainian.

Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi reported this on X.

According to him, Russian EW systems may have diverted the UAV from its intended route.

“We regret the incident that occurred this morning in Lithuanian airspace and may have been caused by Russian electronic warfare systems that diverted the drones off course during an operation against legitimate military targets in Russia,” Tykhyi noted.

He also emphasized Ukraine’s readiness to provide its Lithuanian partners with all the information needed to establish the circumstances of the incident and continue cooperation to prevent similar situations in the future.

Incident in Lithuania

On October 18, an unidentified drone violated Lithuanian airspace, prompting the country to issue an air raid alert.

To determine the type of aerial target, NATO fighter jets assigned to the Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled, but the pilots were unable to visually identify the object due to poor weather conditions.

According to the Lithuanian military, the unidentified aircraft was moving north from Poland. Authorities later found possible drone debris near the village of Juodoniai in Pasvalys District.

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center, told LRT that the debris damaged a civilian car traveling along the road. The driver was unharmed.

Impact of Russian EW on Ukrainian UAVs

Russian EW systems deployed in the Kaliningrad Region may affect the flight paths of Ukrainian long-range drones, diverting them toward Finland and the Baltic states.

Similar incidents have been reported before. In May, for example, debris from a possibly Ukrainian drone was found in Lithuania after it crashed in a field near the village of Samane in Utena District.

In August, Militarnyi reported on a warning from Lithuanian intelligence about the possibility of Russia using captured Ukrainian drones to stage provocations against the Baltic states.

The exact cause of the October 18 incident has not yet been established, and the theory that Russian electronic warfare systems were involved remains preliminary.