NATO fighter jets were scrambled twice overnight after suspected drone incursions triggered air alerts across large parts of Lithuania, with at least one drone entering the country's airspace before flying on into Latvia, officials said on Wednesday, 11 November. The alerts, which urged residents in some areas to seek shelter, also forced the temporary closure of Vilnius and Kaunas airports.

The first alert was issued in the Vilnius and Utena regions at around 11pm on Tuesday, 10 November, and was lifted shortly after midnight. A second alert followed, first in the Alytus region in the south of the country, before being extended to parts of central and northern Lithuania and upgraded to red, the highest level, urging people to find shelter.

What officials said happened

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre, said three drones had initially been detected in Belarus during the first incident, but none of them entered Lithuanian airspace at that stage. One of the drones later entered Latvia, he said.

During the second incident, a drone was believed to have entered Lithuania from Belarus near the southern town of Druskininkai. It then flew north across several regions before leaving Lithuanian airspace near Pasvalys, close to the Latvian border. Vitkauskas said NATO fighter jets detected the object but did not shoot it down, possibly because of poor weather or safety concerns.

Accounts of the night differed in places. Lithuania's prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, wrote on Facebook that four drones had been spotted across the region during what he called "a difficult night", and said an attempt had been made to bring down a drone above northern Lithuania, with debris from a missile fired by a NATO fighter later found near Birzai. The total number of drones involved, and whether any crashed or were shot down, remained unclear on Wednesday.

Airports closed and Latvia on alert

The incidents disrupted civilian aviation. Vilnius and Kaunas airports were temporarily closed while the alerts were in force. Three flights at Vilnius Airport, affecting more than 400 passengers, were disrupted, Vitkauskas said.

Latvia's National Armed Forces issued an airspace threat warning for several municipalities early on Wednesday, activating drone interceptors, air defence units and NATO air policing jets. The warning covered areas near the borders with Russia and Belarus, although the authorities did not immediately identify the object or establish its origin.

The Baltic states have no fighter jets of their own capable of intercepting unknown aircraft, so NATO allies police their skies on a rotating basis from bases in Lithuania and Estonia. The mission, known as Baltic Air Policing, has run around the clock since 2004, and France currently leads the detachment based at Siauliai in Lithuania, reinforced by Romanian F-16s.

A familiar pattern in the Baltics

Unidentified drones have strayed into the airspace of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania repeatedly in recent months, and the latest alerts came on a night when Ukraine was carrying out long-range strikes against Russian targets, including the Kirishi oil refinery near St Petersburg. Moscow has accused Kyiv of exploiting NATO airspace to shield its attacks, while Kyiv has said Russian electronic jamming caused some of its drones to lose their intended flight paths.

Neither side's account of the overnight drones has been independently confirmed, and Lithuanian officials stressed that the identity and origin of the objects had not been established. What is clear is that the alerts were lifted within hours, the airports reopened, and no casualties or damage were reported. The episode is nevertheless a reminder of how quickly a drone crossing the wrong border can put a NATO member state on alert, and why the alliance's Baltic air policing mission remains on permanent standby.

Sources: Bytes Europe, reporting Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT and Clash Report.