Lithuanian border guards failed to detect an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that may have entered the country from Belarus on Monday, Rustamas Liubajevas, commander of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), said.

“In this case, we did not record the entry of that particular object into Lithuanian airspace. I would like to remind you that the SBGS is equipped with border surveillance systems, not airspace surveillance systems. These systems are deployed along the Belarusian and Russian borders and are intended for monitoring and controlling the state border,” Liubajevas told a press conference at the Interior Ministry on Monday.

He emphasized that the SBGS is not responsible for airspace control, surveillance, or defense.

According to Liubajevas, under the government-approved procedure, if border guards visually detect an object or it is picked up by their systems, the information is handed over to the relevant authorities, including the Ministry of National Defence, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and the Air Force.

“All actions related to the entry of such an object into Lithuanian airspace are subsequently coordinated by the Air Force,” he said.

Only rifles

Liubajevas also stressed that the issue of detecting and neutralizing drones is not the responsibility of a single institution but a matter of inter-agency coordination. However, SBGS officers are equipped to deal with smuggling drones.

“We have anti-drone equipment that allows us to neutralize or down them, or cause them to lose contact with the operator and crash. In such cases, our officers arrive at the scene and take steps to intercept the smugglers who come to retrieve the cargo,” he explained.

SBGS officers may also use firearms against drones or other aerial objects if they pose a threat to human life or health.

“But we do not have special equipment for kinetic destruction, apart from assault rifles used in our service today,” Liubajevas noted. “It must be understood that using an assault rifle offers very limited chances of neutralizing a high-speed, high-altitude aerial object.”

Believed to have already fallen

According to Police Commissioner General Renatas Požėla, the Emergency Response Center received the first report of a flying object near Medininkai in the Vilnius District at 5:55 a.m. on Monday.

“Within the next 15 minutes, four more reports were received. The coordinates and information confirmed the object was real, and its direction of movement was established. All Lithuanian police units were immediately alerted, and a decision was made to send an alert via the population information system,” he said.

In total, around 30 sightings of the UAV have been reported. Residents had already reported hearing the drone as early as 5 a.m. on social media.

Požėla noted that the information gathered so far does not allow authorities to determine how far the object traveled or the level of threat it posed.

“We are using every report to try to reconstruct its path and the likely location of its fall. This information is being shared with the Armed Forces, who are searching for the object,” he said.

The most recent sighting came from central Lithuania, near Kaunas. As no further sightings have been reported, authorities believe the drone has already fallen.

Criticism rejected

As BNS reported, the drone was first reported on Monday morning, and the public was alerted shortly after 7 a.m.

The Lithuanian Air Force claims to have detected the object while it was still in Belarusian airspace and passed the information to NATO’s Combined Air Operations Center. The military believes the most likely explanation is that the object was a Russian UAV disoriented by Ukrainian air defense systems.

Renatas Požėla rejected criticism that the public should have been warned earlier, saying the Fire and Rescue Department was notified by the National Crisis Management Center after 6 a.m. that a public alert might be needed.

“We connected the servers, activated the system, and waited for a final decision on the timing and content of the message. As soon as we received the message and an order from the National Crisis Management Center, it was sent out nationwide,” he said.

According to Požėla, the alert was received by around 95% of Bite users, 90% of Telia users, and 99% of Tele2 users shortly after 7 a.m.

He also emphasized that the population alert system includes sirens and radio broadcasts.

“If real danger had been confirmed, sirens would have been activated, and people would have been instructed to tune in to LRT public radio for further guidance. No such order was given in this case, so only a text message was sent,” he added.

Second drone incident in July

This is the second recorded drone intrusion from Belarus into Lithuanian airspace this month.

On July 10, a UAV was initially suspected to be a Shahed drone used by Russia in Ukraine, but was later identified as a Russian-made Gerbera drone, designed to deceive air defense systems.

Following Monday’s incident, additional military assets will be deployed closer to the Belarusian border, Chief of Defense General Valdemaras Rupšys told reporters in Klaipėda.

Source: BNS

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