Lithuania: 'Airspace incident' caused by weather balloon, not drone

Lithuania on Saturday briefly warned residents in its capital of a potential military drone incursion into its airspace, but later said the alert had been triggered by a weather balloon.

Andrius Sytas/Reuters

13 June 2026 at 10:36:16

Lithuania: 'Airspace incident' caused by weather balloon, not drone

An image of the Lithuanian flag courtesy of Unsplash via Wix.

Alessandro Ricossa/Unsplash via Wix

VILNIUS - Lithuania on Saturday briefly warned residents in its capital of a potential military drone incursion into its airspace, but later said the alert had been triggered by a weather balloon.

The Baltic region remains on high alert after a series of recent airspace violations, in which Ukrainian long-range drones missed targets in Russia and strayed into neighbouring nations.

Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre said NATO aircraft were briefly summoned on Saturday to intercept the suspect drone, and visually identified it as a weather balloon.

-Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Terje Solsvik, Editing by Louise Heavens/Reuters