Lithuania's President: drone alert in Vilnius was an "important lesson"

"We must memorize them well," the head of state of the Baltic EU and NATO country told Lithuanian television. Nauseda called on the population to take warnings seriously and to act responsibly. However, there was no reason to overreact or panic.

In Lithuania, the residents of Vilnius had to seek shelter as a precautionary measure on Wednesday following another drone incident at the request of the authorities. Nauseda and other leaders of the Baltic state were also taken to shelters for safety. The airspace above the airport was closed and train services were temporarily suspended. The armed forces had previously informed the population of a possible threat from a drone in the east of the country.

According to Nauseda, the warning system functioned as intended after the drone alert. However, there had been inconsistencies in the response of various institutions. Some emergency shelters were also inaccessible. The Lithuanian head of state said that conclusions had to be drawn from this. The likelihood of further drone incidents was increasing and would remain high in the future.

In the course of the war in Ukraine, there had already been several incidents involving drones in the airspace of the country, which borders Russia and Belarus. Nauseda pointed out that this was a consequence of the war and the detour of drones by electronic warfare. He reiterated that Lithuania had not allowed anyone to use its airspace for drone strikes. Moscow had previously repeatedly accused Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia of making their airspace available to Ukraine.