The most disturbing night": In Lithuania, NATO fighters tried to shoot down a drone twice, but failed. LRT.
On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, the residents of the country received alerts about an air strike due to a UAV in the territory of Lithuania.
The Chief of the Defense Staff of the Lithuanian Army, Gidrius Permiankas, spoke about several incidents.
According to him, three UAVs were first detected on the Belarusian side, but they did not cross the border and moved towards Latvia. Because of the fourth UAV detected around 01.20, an alarm was announced: a UAV from Belarus flew to Lithuania and for a short time to Poland. Immediately after that, while suddenly changing the direction of the movement, the UAV flew again to the territory of Lithuania.
NATO fighters, who rushed to the sky on alert, detected the UAV in the Kovna area, but could not shoot it down there for reasons of the safety of the residents.
"They tried twice to destroy this object, but due to different conditions they did not succeed. One missile missed and fell, the fragments of which were found in the Birjai district," said the military commander.
After that, the UAV flew into Latvian territory. According to the head of the security headquarters, only after an investigation will it become clear why the drone was not shot down.
"The fighters were quite close to touch. But why it could not be shot down, it could have been because of bad weather conditions, maybe it was an area over which it was not safe to shoot down the UAV," said the head of the National Crisis Management Center in Lithuania.