A drone breach near Vilnius led NATO jets to scramble and prompted evacuation orders in Lithuania. The Lithuanian president hid in an underground bunker with Lithuania’s parliament, while thousands of people took shelter in underground car parks after air raid sirens sounded. The prime minister warned that war was closer than ever as Russia appeared to test NATO resolve. The drone’s origin was unclear, but Latvia accused Russia of deliberately diverting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace. Russia warned it could attack Baltic states and claimed NATO membership would not protect them. Latvia rejected the claims as destabilizing fiction. NATO and Estonia responded by shooting down a suspected redirected drone, while Ukraine apologized for unintended incidents and blamed Russia for redirection.
"The Lithuanian president was forced to hide in an underground bunker after Nato jets were scrambled to intercept an attack drone flying towards Vilnius. In the first evacuation orders in a European capital since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Gitanas Nauseda rushed to a shelter alongside Lithuania's entire parliament on Wednesday morning. Thousands of Lithuanians also hid in underground car parks after the air raid siren sounded at 9.40am local time, following a breach of airspace near Belarus."
"Shortly afterwards, Inga Ruginiene, the Lithuanian prime minister, warned that "war is closer than ever" as Russia appeared to be testing Nato's resolve. The origin of the drone, which disappeared from Lithuanian airspace, is unclear. But this week, Latvia accused Russia of deliberately diverting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace. Riga made the claims a week after the Latvian prime minister resigned over the government's handling of Russian incursions."
"On Tuesday, Russia warned that it could attack Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after claiming that the Baltic states had planned to allow Ukraine to launch attacks from their territory. Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, said: "Membership in Nato will not protect you from retaliation." Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, Latvia's envoy to the UN Security Council, rejected Moscow's claim as "pure fiction" intended to destabilise Nato."
"On the same day, a Nato F-16 fighter jet flew over Estonia to shoot down a drone that Tallinn suspected of being a Ukrainian projectile that had been redirected by Moscow's forces. Ukraine apologised to "Estonia and all our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents" and accused Russia of redirecting its drones over Nato airspace deliberately. On Wednesday, Mark Rutte, Nato's secretary-general, praised the alliance's "ca"
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