Mystery drone crash in Lithuania raises baltic airspace alarm amid NATO scramble

The drone was discovered in the village of Samane in eastern Lithuania, near the borders with Latvia and Belarus, and was not detected upon entry into national airspace, News.Az reports, citing The Star.
The head of the crisis management centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, told reporters that the drone was not armed with explosives, and authorities are currently examining the circumstances of its crash.

Kyiv has not yet commented on the incident, while officials noted that several similar stray drones have entered NATO member airspace in recent months, including Latvia and Estonia.

Separately, the Latvian army reported a drone alert along its border with Russia on Sunday morning, prompting NATO air policing fighters to be deployed, with one drone briefly entering Latvian airspace.

Officials in the Baltic states have previously stated that their territories are not used for strikes against Russia, while Kyiv has maintained that stray drones were launched at Russian targets but were affected by electronic interference.