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NATO fighter jets were scrambled on Sunday after an unidentified flying object, suspected to be a drone, entered Lithuanian airspace, Lithuanian authorities and the Latvian armed forces said.
The Latvian military said it appeared the jets “did not shoot down the suspected unmanned aerial vehicle” and that it was possible it had “detonated on its own.”
The incident took place close to the Latvian border and triggered multiple air alerts, it added.
According to Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas, fighter jets carrying out a NATO air defence mission were tracking the object in the Biržai district of northern Lithuania on Sunday morning.
“Due to difficult weather conditions, the fighter jet pilots are currently unable to visually identify the object,” he wrote in a post on social media.
The origin of the suspected drone remains unclear. Investigations are ongoing, with Lithuanian military personnel heading to the location where radio signal was lost to carry out a ground inspection.
The incident is the latest in a growing series of drone incursions and incidents along NATO’s eastern flank, many of which are believed to be spillover from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It comes after Romanian authorities announced on Saturday that Romanian F-16 fighter jets had shot down two drones over the Black Sea.
The aircraft were called into action after radar surveillance systems detected a number of aerial targets, the Romanian Defence Ministry said. It later announced that the targets were “jet-powered attack drones from the Geran family.”
Defence Minister Radu Miruta said the first drone entered Romanian airspace at around 17:59 and was shot down “within two minutes,” 25 km south-east of the town of Sulina.
“The second drone, in the same area, was engaged and shot down at 18:05, five minutes after entering national airspace, 20 km east of Sulina,” he added.