By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Lithuania told residents in central and northern parts of the country to go to shelters for about an hour on Sunday morning due to an unrecognised flying object, the army and national crisis management centre said.
While the “red” air warning was in effect, NATO air police fighters were summoned to the area and Kaunas airport, near Lithuania’s second-largest city of Kaunas, was closed, the centre said.
Lithuanian army personnel were investigating possible drone debris near Juodzionys village in northern Lithuania, after the flying object disappeared from radar, the centre said.
The object probably entered from Poland, said the centre, citing the Lithuanian army. Poland is verifying a possible violation of its airspace by an unidentified object, its army said on Sunday.
Northern neighbour Latvia issued and then dropped a “yellow” air warning in some regions bordering Lithuania during the same period, citing a “possible threat”, Latvia’s army said.
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered NATO airspace in the Baltic region in recent months. Kyiv has said they were steered off course by Russian signal jamming.
This has stoked concerns that Russia’s war in Ukraine is spilling over NATO’s borders.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Saad Sayeed, William Mallard, Elaine Hardcastle)
