“The first thing that was agreed upon was to immediately increase the sharing of certain intelligence information and to invite NATO colleagues to Lithuania to assess our situation in terms of air defence, anti-drone defence, and what else could be done,” Šakalienė told Žinių radijas on Thursday morning.
“My meeting with the commander of the Allied forces in Europe is scheduled for early September in Vilnius, where we will discuss the results of this assessment and additional capabilities that could be used in our country,” the acting minister said.
Šakalienė also said procedures for responding to unidentified flying objects are being updated to allow decisions on neutralising them to be made without political involvement.
On 28 July, multiple eyewitnesses reported to the police that they saw a UAV in Lithuanian airspace. It was concluded that the drone violated Lithuanian airspace and was flying from Belarus. The drone was discovered on 1 August at the Gaižiūnai training area in Jonava District. It was carrying explosives.
This was the second such incident last month. On 10 July, a Russian-made Gerbera drone crashed in Lithuania 1 km from the border with Belarus.