Lithuania weighs changes to air-alert system after Varėna incident

Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas has said the government is examining possible changes to the population alert algorithm following an incident near Varėna last weekend, when residents were not warned about an object detected over Lithuanian territory.

According to the minister, an analysis is already underway, and if the government determines the alert procedure needs to change, it will be revised. Kaunas acknowledged that in the specific Varėna case, the rules created for informing the public did not meet all the necessary criteria. He said he had requested precise information from the military to assess whether the rules should evolve and be supplemented, noting that inaccuracies had been found regarding timing and sound detection. He added that a clearer picture now exists and that the Defence Staff has been tasked with analyzing the decisions made about informing the public.

Sequence of events

Last Sunday, some residents of southeastern Lithuania were alerted to a possible air raid warning, but it later emerged that radars had actually picked up a flock of birds. Earlier that same day, at dawn, radars near Varėna detected an object that entered Lithuanian airspace and headed toward Russia's Kaliningrad region. Because of insufficient data, no air raid alert was issued over that incident. Kaunas said he had questions about the timing and flight path of the object that crossed Lithuanian territory, but later stated he received clear answers from the Lithuanian army.

Separately, in the early hours of Tuesday, a drone that entered Lithuania from Belarus was shot down by NATO fighter jets in the Kaišiadorys district, near the Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Plant. This marked the first time NATO's air policing mission in Lithuania has destroyed a drone that violated the country's airspace.