Lithuania shoots down Russian Gerbera drone that drifted from Ukraine

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda reported that a Russian Gerbera drone, which entered the country from Belarus, was likely meant for Ukraine but was redirected by Ukrainian electronic warfare. The aircraft was engaged and destroyed by Italian fighter jets stationed at NATO’s Šiauliai base over the Kaišiadorys district, close to the Kruonis pumped-storage hydropower plant. Authorities warned citizens in the Vilnius and Kaunas areas of a possible air threat as the drone traversed Lithuanian skies.

Nausėda cautioned that similar incursions could recur and stressed the need for better detection and neutralisation capabilities, noting that relying on fighter jets is not an efficient solution. This is the first time a drone has been shot down over Lithuania since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, although comparable events have occurred in neighboring Latvia and Estonia. Recent weeks have seen multiple air-threat alerts in Lithuania, some later attributed to birds or unidentified objects from Belarus.