On Saturday, Lithuanian authorities announced a yellow air threat alert for the Vilnius district after a suspicious object appeared in the country's airspace. The situation was reported by the website of the Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.
Lithuania picked up NATO fighters. They mistook the Belarusian balloon for a drone
Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said that the response of the services took place after the radar registered an object with characteristics typical of a drone. However, after a more detailed analysis, it was possible to determine the actual nature of the detected target.
The identification showed that a weather balloon entered Lithuanian airspace from the territory of Belarus. The radar image of this facility was initially so misleading that the services initiated procedures related to the NATO Air Policing mission. Authorities canceled the alert before 11 local time, i.e. before 10 in Warsaw.
— The object was most likely identified as a weather balloon, not a drone, and residents were informed that the air threat had been eliminated, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center, told LRT television. He added that despite everything, the authorities recommend “remaining vigilant because similar objects may appear again.”
Another such incident
The incident in the Vilnius district is another similar event on the Alliance's eastern border. In recent months, drones have violated the airspace of countries on NATO's eastern flank several times.
