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People take shelter in an underground car park during an air raid alert in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lrytas via AP)<\/p>\n
Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lrytas\/AP Photo\/Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lryt<\/p>\n
People take shelter in an underground car park during an air raid alert in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lrytas via AP)<\/p>\n
Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lrytas\/AP Photo\/Vygintas Skaraitis\/Lryt<\/p>\n
The phone shows the received message “The Lithuanian military reports: “AIR DANGER. Hurry to cover or a safe place without delay, take care of your loved ones, wait for further recommendations. We will inform you about the end of the danger in a separate message”, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Mindaugas Kulbis\/AP Photo\/Mindaugas Kulbis<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP Photo\/Virginia Mayo<\/p>\n
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged after a Russian strike on Konotop, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Emergency Service\/Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP<\/p>\n
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) \u2014 Residents of Lithuania’s capital were told to take shelter and the president and prime minister were taken to safe locations on Wednesday after an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus, underlining jitters on NATO’s eastern flank over incursions related to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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An emergency announcement from the military urged people in the region of Vilnius, the country’s capital, to \u201cimmediately head to a shelter or a safe place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The alert, which lasted for about an hour, also led to the closure of the airspace over Vilnius Airport. President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were taken to shelters, and there was also an evacuation order at Lithuania’s parliament, the Seimas, the BNS news agency reported.<\/p>\n
It was the first major alert that sent residents and political leaders in a European Union and NATO capital rushing to shelters since Russia\u2019s invasion of neighbor Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n
It came hours after a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine apologized for that \u201cunintended incident,\u201d without specifying what had happened.<\/p>\n
In another sign of heightened tensions, Britain\u2019s military said Wednesday that two Russian jets \u201crepeatedly and dangerously\u201d intercepted a Royal Air Force spy plane over the Black Sea last month. The Ministry of Defense said one Su-35 aircraft flew close enough to trigger emergency systems on the unarmed RAF Rivet Joint plane and disable its autopilot.<\/p>\n
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The ministry said the British plane was in international airspace as part of operations to secure NATO’s eastern flank.<\/p>\n
NATO chief praises response to drone incursions<\/p>\n
Lithuania borders Russia-allied Belarus to the east and Russia\u2019s Kaliningrad exclave to the west. Wednesday\u2019s alert came after the military said it detected drone activity in Belarus, but no drones were sighted over Lithuania.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the parameters we saw, it\u2019s most likely either a combat drone or a drone designed to deceive systems and lure targets,\u201d Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania\u2019s National Crisis Management Center, said in a news briefing. It wasn’t possible to ascertain whether the drone had a warhead, he said.<\/p>\n
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Belarus reported the potential drone to Lithuania and neighboring Latvia, according to Brig. Gen. Nerijus Stankevicius, commander of the Lithuanian Army\u2019s Land Forces.<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte commended the alliance\u2019s reaction to several drone incidents in recent days, saying Wednesday in Brussels that they had been met with \u201ca calm, decisive and proportionate response.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vilnius residents sought shelter<\/p>\n
Vilnius resident Maryia Malevich said she was terrified when the alert sounded.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI and my colleagues, we went downstairs and waited probably for 30 minutes” before the all-clear notification came, she said. \u201cWe were unprepared and we didn\u2019t know what we should do. And even now, we don\u2019t know what really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another Vilnius resident, Iuliia Dudkina, said she wasn’t scared because her friends live in Israel and frequently have to head to shelters. She said her husband had a different reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was actually very worried and asked me to take our dog and go downstairs to the underground garage. So I did it,” Dudkina said. \u201cThere were no people except me. So I guess no one really got very scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drones crossing borders heighten tensions<\/p>\n
In recent months, Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory on numerous occasions. Western officials have blamed what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the drones. Russia, meanwhile, has renewed threats that it would retaliate if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries or if those countries are complicit in their use against Russia.<\/p>\n
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\u201cRussia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace while waging smear campaigns\u201d against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said late Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s a transparent act of desperation \u2014 an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: (Ukraine) is hitting the Russian military machine hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Latvia\u2019s government collapsed following a dispute over the handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Russia and Ukraine hammer each other with drones<\/p>\n
In a recent escalation of aerial attacks, Russia and Ukraine have sometimes fired hundreds of drones a day at each other.<\/p>\n
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Ukraine\u2019s air force said Wednesday that it shot down 131 out of 154 drones that Russia launched overnight. The ones that got past air defenses killed three civilians and wounded 18 others, including two children, officials said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its aerial campaign against Russia\u2019s vital oil industry, with the General Staff reporting its drones struck a major Russian oil refinery and a pipeline pumping station overnight.<\/p>\n
Russian media reports also indicated that a chemical plant in the southern Stavropol region was hit and caught fire, although local officials didn\u2019t confirm any direct hit.<\/p>\n
Russia gets some relief from oil sanctions<\/p>\n
The U.K. government, a strong supporter of Ukraine’s war effort, loosened sanctions Wednesday on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise and fears grow about supplies due to the Iran war.<\/p>\n
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That step comes two days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington was granting a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea.<\/p>\n
The move, designed to reduce the oil supply shortages, marked a continued policy reversal by the Trump administration, which had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April.<\/p>\n
Associated Press journalists Siarhei Satsiuk in Vilnius, Lithuania; Geir Moulson in Berlin; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Jill Lawless in London; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Kostya Manenkov in Tallinn, Estonia, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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