Russian Underwater Drone Could Have Entered Lithuanian Territorial Waters

In early August, an underwater drone from Russia may have entered Lithuanian territorial waters near Nida.

This was reported by the local publication Delfi.

According to eyewitnesses, a Lithuanian patrol boat was chasing the object. The behavior of the border guards looked unusual, as this part of the Curonian Lagoon is not usually patrolled.

Aistė Žalnieraitienė, Senior Public Relations Officer of the Border Guard Detachment of the State Border Guard Service, confirmed that a suspicious object had been spotted in the waters of the Curonian Lagoon on August 2.

The Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau (LCPB) is currently investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Upon completion of the inspection, a decision will be made to open a pre-trial investigation. It can be assumed that the drone was launched from the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation.

Russian drones in Lithuania

On August 1, the wreckage of a Russian Gerbera drone, which probably came from Belarus, was found in Lithuania.

The crashed drone was found by the military at the Gaižiūnai training ground in Jonava district municipality. This information was later confirmed by the Minister of National Defence of Lithuania, Dovile Šakalienė.

As a reminder, on July 28, a Russian drone crossed Lithuanian airspace from Belarus and stayed in the country’s airspace for some time.

The National Crisis Management Centre reported that the UAV had been flying at an altitude of about 200 meters and had been last seen in the Vilnius area between 4:40 and 5:00 am.

After the incident, the Lithuanian military immediately launched a search operation, and only on Friday found the wreckage of the Gerbera.

This is the second such incident in July. Earlier, another drone, also identified as a Gerbera, crashed near the closed Šumskas border crossing point, about a kilometer from the border with Belarus.