On Thursday, July 10, a homemade aircraft resembling a small drone crossed Lithuanian airspace from the Belarusian side and crashed near the border. Officials confirmed that they were ordered to take cover.
This is reported by LRT.
Thus, the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania reported that the object, initially mistaken for a Shahed drone, was discovered by officers of the Kena border post in the Vilnius district.
According to officials, the object resembled a homemade aircraft and appeared to be built of plywood and foam. It crashed near the now closed Shumskas border checkpoint, about a kilometer from the Belarusian border.
It is noted, there was no indication that the glider was carrying any cargo, and authorities confirmed that it posed no threat. Border guards notified the Lithuanian Air Force, which oversees the country's airspace.
Border guards said they often detect attempts to smuggle contraband, including cigarettes, into Lithuania using drones, weather balloons and homemade aircraft launched from Belarus.
Parliament Speaker Saulius Skvernėlis confirmed to reporters that he had been taken to shelter for violating airspace.
"The command security service told us to take shelter, which we did," he said.
He said he had been ordered to hide due to "an incident involving a flying object." Skvernėlis added that he could not disclose details.
"The important thing is that nothing is flying now," Skvernėlis said.
Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas, who was meeting with journalists at the government building at the time, was also taken to a shelter, according to a BNS correspondent who was present at the meeting.
The authorities have not yet confirmed whether the glider incident was the reason why the country's leaders went to shelters.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Lithuania and Finland will start their own production of anti-personnel mines next year to supply them to Ukraine and for their own security due to the military threat from the aggressor country russia.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budris called on the European Union to immediately adopt the 18th package of sanctions against the country in the wake of russia's most massive attack on Ukraine on the night of July 9.
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