Explosive-laden Ukrainian drone crashes in NATO state

An unmanned aerial vehicle entered Lithuanian airspace from Poland, according to the Baltic nation’s Defense Ministry An explosive-laden Ukrainian attack drone crashed in Lithuania on Sunday, damaging a passenger car, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius confirmed on Monday.

The drone triggered a high-level air alert in several Lithuanian regions before crashing in the northern Pasvalys district, near the Latvian border.

Debris from the UAV damaged a passing car, but no one was injured, according to National Crisis Management Center head Vilmantas Vitkauskas.

Sinkevicus said the response to the incident was different from standard procedures because the drone arrived from a fellow NATO nation.

“The drone entered from the Schengen Area, crossing the border with Poland, so the response was slightly different.

Fighter jets were, of course, scrambled and tracked the moving object, but they were unable to see it visually due to adverse weather conditions,” the prime minister said.

On Monday, Sinkevicus confirmed that the UAV had been identified as a Ukrainian strike drone.

“There is no doubt that it was carrying an explosive payload,” he said.

Read more Baltic states enabled Ukrainian drone attacks – Moscow According to Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas, the drone was likely a part of a major Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of St.

Petersburg.

“Some of the drones were diverted off course by Russia’s electronic warfare systems and ended up in our territory.

This particular drone is a consequence of the attack on St.

Petersburg,” the minister told the LRT broadcaster.

He also identified the drone as a Ukrainian FVP-1 model.