Unidentified Object Entered Lithuanian Airspace From Belarus—Search Underway

On the morning of October 3, Lithuania declared a yellow threat level due to an unidentified aerial object, likely a drone, that entered the country’s airspace from Belarus.

This was reported by Vilmantas Vitkauskas, Head of Threat Management and Crisis Prevention at the Prime Minister’s Office in Lithuania, according to LRT.

Due to the incident, the airspace near Vilnius Airport was temporarily closed, and operations at the airport were suspended. NATO fighter jets were scrambled.

A yellow-level alert was issued shortly before 10:00 a.m. Residents of the region received alerts on their cell phones urging them to find a safe place.

However, the aerial object could not be fully identified. According to Vitkauskas, the fighter jets took to the air and carried out the appropriate procedures.

Authorities also received reports from residents who claimed to have seen the object outside Vilnius in the direction of Jonava. However, these reports were not confirmed.

The air threat was lifted at 10:37 a.m. According to Vitkauskas, the object disappeared from the surveillance zone and no longer posed a threat. It is currently being searched for.

Vitkauskas noted that it is unknown whether the object was actually a drone. He said that certain parameters of the object indicated a speed slightly lower than what is typical for a UAV.

“If it crashed, if it was a drone, we’ll have to find it. But it wasn’t necessarily a drone,” Vilmantas Vitkauskas said.

The official also did not rule out that the observed phenomenon could have been related to an anomaly or bird migration. Lithuanian authorities are currently continuing to determine the nature of the object and the circumstances of its appearance in the vicinity of the Lithuanian capital.

As a reminder, on the morning of September 13, a drone flew from Belarus to the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation through Lithuanian territory. It was also initially identified as an unidentified aerial object. The UAV flew 60–70 km over Lithuania and remained in the NATO country’s airspace for about 20 minutes.

Amid the growing threat from drones in Lithuania, a pilot version of the Ukrainian SkyFortress system is being deployed, which is designed to help detect them at low altitudes using sound or radio signals.