NATO jets shoot down drone near Russian border

NATO fighter jets have shot down an unidentified drone in southern Lithuania, a small Baltic country bordering Russia, officials said on Tuesday.

The UAV entered Lithuanian airspace shortly after midnight and was downed around 30 minutes later over a rural area near the village of Pratkunai, west of the capital, Vilnius, said Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center.

“Teams have been dispatched to identify what kind of drone it is, determine its specifications, and establish what its intended target was,” Vitkauskas told Radio LRT. According to LRT, it was the first drone to be shot down over Lithuania.

The incident took place amid heightened tensions between Russia and NATO over the Ukraine conflict. Several Ukrainian drones have veered into the Baltic states earlier this year, which Kiev has blamed on Russian signal-jamming. NATO members have also accused Russia of flying drones into their airspace, allegations Moscow has dismissed as unfounded.

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