An unidentified drone has been discovered on Lithuanian soil following a series of recent drone-related incidents in the Baltic states, authorities said on Sunday.
According to the National Crisis Management Centre, a crashed aerial object was found in a field in the Utena district. Officials said it may be a military drone. There were no immediate indications that the device had exploded.
No initial details were available about the drone’s origin or type.
However, early information suggested it could be a Ukrainian drone, the head of the crisis management centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, told Lithuanian media in Vilnius. Security forces are examining the crash site, which was reported to authorities by local residents.
It remains unclear when and how the drone entered Lithuanian airspace and subsequently crashed. Utena lies in the north-east of the Baltic EU and NATO member state, near the borders with Latvia and Belarus, a close ally of Russia.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than four years. In the course of the ongoing drone warfare between the two sides, devices diverted or neutralized by electronic countermeasures have posed a risk to neighbouring countries.
In recent incidents, drones used by Kiev to target sites in north-western Russia have repeatedly strayed into Baltic airspace and, in some cases, crashed.
Earlier this month in Latvia, empty tanks at an oil depot in the eastern town of Rēzekne, some 50 kilometres from the Russian border, were hit by two stray Ukrainian drones.
No one was injured, but the incident sparked a political crisis in which first the defence minister and then prime minister resigned.