Ukrainian drone falls undetected in Lithuania for the second time in two months

A downed drone, believed to belong to the Ukrainian military, was discovered on Sunday in a field near the village of Samanė in the Utena district of Lithuania. This is already the second such incident in less than two months.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre confirmed the discovery of the drone. Centre director Vilmantas Vitkauskas told reporters that the drone had entered Lithuanian airspace undetected and was not equipped with explosives. The crash site is located approximately 40 kilometres from the Latvian border and 55 kilometres from Belarus. Ukraine has made no official comment on the incident.

Baltic airspace under threat

The crash occurred on the same day that Latvia declared an air alert along its border with Russia: an unidentified drone was detected in its airspace early Sunday morning. Latvia’s National Armed Forces reported that the drone subsequently left the country’s territory. NATO fighter jets participating in the Baltic air policing mission were scrambled to the area. No casualties or damage were recorded in Latvia.

Ukrainian drones, reportedly targeting Russian energy infrastructure on the Baltic Sea coast, continue to stray into NATO airspace — allegedly after being thrown off course by Russian electronic warfare systems.

A series of airspace violations

On 23 March, a similar incident occurred in Lithuania: a drone fell into a frozen lake in the Varėna district, approximately 20 kilometres from the Belarusian border. Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė subsequently confirmed that it was a wayward Ukrainian drone used in a strike operation against the Russian port of Primorsk. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said the drone had been flying at an altitude of less than 300 metres, remaining undetected by Lithuanian and Belarusian radar.

On 7 May, two drones entered Latvian airspace from Russia and crashed in the eastern Latgale region. One of them struck an oil storage facility in Rēzekne, damaging four empty tanks. The incident led to the resignation of Latvia’s defence minister and subsequently the country’s prime minister.

In response to the series of airspace violations, Lithuania signed a defence cooperation agreement with Ukraine on 13 May covering the joint production of drones, and invited Ukrainian military experts to assess the country’s air defence capabilities. NATO also conducted tests of new anti-drone technologies at a Lithuanian training ground as part of the alliance’s efforts to address detection gaps on its eastern flank.