NATO fighter jets attacked a drone over Lithuania twice but did not shoot it down

On the night of 11 November, NATO fighter jets guarding the airspace of the Baltic states attacked a drone over Lithuania twice, but failed to shoot it down. This was reported by Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC). He called the past night one of the tensest in recent times.

The fighters were scrambled from the Šiauliai air base. According to Vitkauskas, they detected the object but could not bring it down. Why the attempt failed, he said, is for the military to explain.

Debris from missiles fired by the aircraft was found in the Biržai district in northern Lithuania, near the border with Latvia. According to Lithuanian authorities, the drone crossed the border and ended up in Latvian airspace.

On the evening of 10 November, the NKVC reported a target moving from the direction of Belarus. At first Vitkauskas said that, according to preliminary information, it was a drone. At the same time, he said it was hard to tell whether it was a drone or some other object.

A red-level air raid alert was declared in the Vilnius, Utena and Alytus counties. Operations at the Vilnius and Kaunas airports were temporarily restricted. Vilnius Mayor Valdas Benkunskas urged residents to check that shelters were available and, if there were none, to look for safer places, such as basements. During the night, residents of Kaunas and Panevėžys were also urged to take cover.

Around 00:30, according to the NKVC, another unidentified drone was detected in Belarus heading toward the Lithuanian border. Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said the army was monitoring the situation.

Besides the drone, Lithuanian radars picked up about ten objects resembling the balloons smugglers use to carry cigarettes across the border. The national centre suggests the drone may have been Ukrainian and heading toward Russia but strayed off course.

Around 23:20, an orange-level warning was declared in Latvia's Ludza municipality. Twenty minutes later a yellow-level warning was declared in the Augšdaugava and Krāslava municipalities, and 20 minutes after that the level in Krāslava municipality was raised to orange. Interceptor-drone and air defence units were placed on alert.

According to Latvia's National Armed Forces, three unmanned aircraft entered the country's airspace. Two of them crossed the eastern border for 1–2 minutes, and one passed through Latvian territory from south to north. Around 00:20 the threat level was lowered to yellow, and at 00:40 the alert was cancelled.

The Communications Office of Estonia's State Chancellery said that drones' intrusion into Baltic airspace is a direct result of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

In September 2026, NATO fighter jets had already shot down a drone that violated Lithuanian airspace.