NATO fighter jets have been scrambled after a suspected Russian drone triggered an air alert in Lithuania, forcing the suspension of flights at Vilnius Airport and prompting authorities to warn residents of a possible threat.
Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center issued a yellow alert covering Vilnius, Trakai and Elektrenai districts after an unidentified object was detected approaching the country.
The alert was later lifted, with Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Center, seeking to reassure residents.
“There is no threat, people can calm down. (…) In principle, the threat level has been eliminated.”
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Lithuanian Armed Forces said radars near Varėna had detected an object travelling towards the Kaliningrad region, the Russian exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland.
One Lithuanian media outlet reported that the object may have entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus, Moscow’s close military ally.
The military later said: “After the radar tag left Lithuanian airspace, there was no reason to declare an air alert.”
It remained unclear whether the object was a drone.
The incident nevertheless highlights the growing vulnerability of NATO’s eastern flank as Russia’s war against Ukraine increasingly sends drones and other aerial threats towards neighbouring alliance members.
Lithuanian military officials said earlier this week that drones originally launched towards Ukraine had landed inside Lithuania.
It is reported there's an air raid alert in Lithuania.
Friends from Lithuania, can you share more details? https://t.co/cuNjHG6IUe pic.twitter.com/wYHWuAstQ5
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 13, 2026
General Raimundas Vaikšnoras, commander of Lithuania’s armed forces, confirmed that Russian-made “Gerbera” drones had been fired at Ukrainian cities before ending up on Lithuanian territory.
The developments come as Lithuania accelerates efforts to strengthen its defences amid concerns that Moscow could eventually test NATO’s eastern flank.
Russia has repeatedly issued threats against Lithuania, a NATO member that borders both Belarus and the heavily militarised Kaliningrad region.
The latest warning came from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who suggested this week that Lithuania could be wiped “off the map”.
He said: “No one will come to their defence. Even if the place is reduced to scorched earth, no other country will go to war for them. And the well-known Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – it will not be invoked, everyone recognises that. Because if it is invoked, it will be a global catastrophe, a planetary one. They are not fools. But Lithuania will disappear from the map,”
For Lithuania, the episode underscores the strategic dilemma facing NATO’s Baltic members: even when an unidentified aircraft does not ultimately breach or threaten national airspace, the possibility of Russian or Belarusian-linked drones crossing the border can rapidly disrupt civilian aviation and trigger a military response.
With Russian drones already reaching NATO territory after attacks on Ukraine, the boundary between the Ukraine war and the alliance’s eastern airspace is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
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