Lithuania is increasingly worried about a possible conflict with Russia and asked NATO to provide her with air defense systems, after a second military drone of Moscow has crossed its territory in a month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vilnius wrote to the military alliance asking for his intervention. “It must not be just a liability of Lithuania, because we are defending the Eastern side of NATO,” the Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys told journalists.
Letter to Rutte
Defense Minister Decali Šakalienė and Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys sent a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to request, said Šakalienė Tuesday.
Lithuania, a small town of less than 3 million inhabitants, NATO and EU member, borders with Belarus and with the Russian Exclave of Kaliningrad.
Concrete commitment of NATO
In the letter sent by the foreign ministers and the defense of Lithuania to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, it is stated that the alliance must prove to be ready to defend “every centimeter of its territory”, and the deployment of additional skills, “also experimental”, is required.
“Since it is likely that similar accidents continue until Russia’s war against Ukraine continues, it means that we must take additional measures,” said defense minister Dovile Sakaliene.
The accident
In the last accident, on July 28 a drone crossed the Lithuanian territory and it is suspected that it was directed by Russia to Ukraine, but that it was disoriented by the Ukrainian defenses, explained the minister.
The drone was found precipitated in a military training area about one hundred kilometers from the border with Belarus and contained 2 kilos of explosive, explained the chief of staff of the Lithuanian army, Dainius Paskevicius.
Wooden kamikaze drones
Sakaliene had previously identified the object like a Gerbera Drone, a wood copy of a Kamikaze Shahed drone, of Iranian design, that the Russian army is known to use as baits to overwhelm or distract the aerial defenses of the opponents.
Another Gerbera drone entered Lithuania from Belarus on 10 July, causing alarm before the authorities determined that it was not dangerous. In that case, the then Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and the president of Parliament Saulius Skvernelis were also briefly brought to anti -antiomic shelters. In both cases for Vilnius it was dangerous provocations.
A risk for the whole NATO
With the intensification of air attacks against Ukraine in recent months, the risk of accidents of this type increases along the eastern border of NATO and similar accidents have been reported in Poland, Romania and Latvia.
Foreign Minister Budrys described the situation as “a concern for all NATO”, asking for joint efforts to face “new types of threats”.
“It is not just about Lithuanian airspace, nor the safety of Lithuania: it is the airplane of NATO, NATO security and also of EU security,” he said.
