Alarm bells rang across Lithuania on Wednesday 20/5, when reports of a suspicious drone from Belarus led to the temporary closure of Vilnius airport and the issuance of shelter-in-place orders. According to Reuters, the military issued an urgent message calling on residents of the capital to immediately take shelter in safe places and await further recommendations, though the extent of the message’s distribution to the population has not been clarified.
Read: Estonia: Alert over suspicious drone – Shot down by missile from Romanian F-16
Lithuania: Citizens in shelters – Drone causes panic
Lithuania issued an “aviation threat” warning and suspended traffic at the capital’s airport due to fears of airspace violations by drones.
The country’s national crisis management center had announced earlier that it issued an alert after detecting a drone in neighboring Belarus, which reportedly was moving toward Lithuanian airspace. However, authorities clarified that the origin of the unmanned aircraft has not been confirmed so far.
As part of security measures, traffic at Vilnius airport was also temporarily suspended, while security services and the military remained on standby.
The incident comes during a period of heightened tension in the Baltic region and successive airspace violations, amid frequent Ukrainian attacks against Russian targets. Just one day earlier, a NATO fighter aircraft shot down a suspicious Ukrainian drone over Estonia, according to an announcement by authorities of the Baltic country, intensifying concerns about security in the broader region.
