NATO fighter jets early Tuesday morning shot down a drone in Lithuanian airspace that officials said entered Lithuania from bordering Belarus and was armed with explosives. It was the first time a drone has been shot down in Lithuania since the war in Ukraine began.
Since last year, Ukrainian drones have been shot down in Estonia and Latvia, and suspected Russian drones have been shot down in Poland and Romania. Russia has not claimed any of these drones as its own and has yet to comment on the Lithuanian incident. Lithuanian officials didn’t say anything about the potential origin of the drone, but are investigating the debris to determine where it came from.
Also on Tuesday, Denmark said a Russian warship fired two emergency flares at one of its military helicopters conducting surveillance in the Baltic Sea. One flare came close to the helicopter.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said both incidents constituted “part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe, testing our readiness and our resolve.”
She added, “Russia will find our resolve only growing stronger.”
NATO’s borders have been moved closer to Russia during the past 27 years, and it is entirely possible that Russian drones could stray into or otherwise enter NATO airspace. Lithuania, which joined NATO in 2004, is less than 100 miles from Mainland Russia, shares a border with the Russian oblast Kaliningrad, and shares a border with Russian ally Belarus.
Poland, which joined NATO in 1999, shares a border with Ukraine. On Sunday, a Russian drone hit a civilian train in Yahodyn, Ukraine, very close to the Polish border. The strike sparked suspicions that the intended target was a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, and security advisers from several European Union states. They were returning from a security conference in Kyiv and left the station in Yahodyn ahead of schedule before the attack.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump called on Ukraine to stop targeting Russia’s diesel fuel, implicitly blaming Ukraine for rising diesel fuel prices in America. According to Reuters, Trump said:
“Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing: He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. We spoke to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel. That’s hurting the world.”
Trump seems intent on shifting blame for the economic crisis caused by his disastrous war with Iran onto Ukraine. However, both the policy of Ukraine striking Russian energy production and the intelligence required for Ukraine to conduct the strikes come from Washington.
Then, on Monday, Trump claimed that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure. This was immediately contradicted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
