Vilnius Airport in Lithuania closed over unidentified object in the sky — RMF24

A yellow air alert was declared in Lithuania's Vilnius County in the morning due to an unidentified flying object that was likely a drone. NATO fighter jets were scrambled, and the airspace above Vilnius Airport was temporarily closed; the airport's operations were suspended, RMF24 reports.

The object may have flown from Belarus

Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre stated that the object may likely have arrived from the direction of Belarus. It has not yet been conclusively identified. The head of the centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, said that the scrambled fighter jets were carrying out the necessary procedures.

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According to him, the centre received reports from residents about a potential object that allegedly moved from the outskirts of Vilnius toward Jonava in the central part of the country. At the same time, the official stressed that these were citizens' reports, not radar data from the air defence mission.

Previous incidents

In recent months, Lithuania has already issued warnings about a possible air threat amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an aggressor state. In September, a drone that violated the country's airspace was shot down over Lithuanian territory for the first time. Similar incidents had previously occurred in Latvia and Estonia.