Lithuanian PM: Drone That Exploded in Pasvalys District Was Ukrainian
Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said the drone that exploded on Sunday in the Pasvalys district was a Ukrainian FPV drone carrying explosives, which entered Lithuania from Poland. Ukraine has apologised for the incident.
A drone that exploded on Sunday in the Pasvalys district of northern Lithuania was Ukrainian and carried explosives, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius told journalists on Monday after a meeting of the National Security Commission. He said there was no doubt that it entered Lithuanian airspace from Poland, meaning through the Schengen zone. The case matters because it shows how Lithuania's defences respond to objects approaching from a friendly country rather than from Belarus.
How the flight unfolded
Military data show that radars first detected the object on Sunday at 5:47 a.m. in Polish territory, 30–40 kilometres from the Lithuanian border. It crossed the border at 6:02 a.m. Shortly after 6 a.m., residents of Kalvarija called the Emergency Response Centre to report the sound of a drone. At 6:40 a.m. a decision was made to scramble NATO fighter jets. Giedrius Premeneckas, head of the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, said Polish military radars did not pick up the drone.
Debris was found in the village of Jodžioniai, and the blast damaged a civilian vehicle. No casualties were reported. Residents of the Kaunas district were informed of the air threat at 6:45 a.m., while those in the Panevėžys and Šiauliai districts were warned at about 7 a.m.
Response procedures
Sinkevičius explained that the alert algorithm differs depending on whether an object arrives from a friendly country or from Belarus or Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. Had the drone approached from Belarus, the response would have been different. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said there was initially no information indicating that the object on radar was a drone. Premeneckas stressed that destroying a target without full visual identification could have serious consequences, and said procedures were followed. The jets picked up the object on their radars, but poor weather prevented visual contact.
Ukraine's role and next steps
Ukrainian representatives confirmed that during Sunday's attack they lost contact with one of their drones. Ukraine apologised. The prime minister said it is still unclear why the drone exploded; possible causes include a malfunction, running out of fuel, or hitting the ground or trees.
Kaunas rejected claims in Polish media that the drone had not entered Polish airspace and was launched from Lithuania, stressing that Lithuania does not allow other countries to use its airspace or territory to attack third countries. He also announced that Lithuania plans to introduce an integrated airspace surveillance system by the end of 2027.
