Kyiv Blames Russian Jamming for Drone Incident in Lithuania
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said that the drone incident that occurred on the morning of 18 October in Lithuania was probably the result of Russian electronic warfare. He wrote on X, as reported by European Pravda.
Apology and cooperation
Tykhyi said Ukraine regrets the incident in Lithuanian airspace and that it was likely a consequence of “Russian electronic warfare measures aimed at changing the course of drones during an operation against legitimate military targets on Russian territory.” “We apologise for any inconvenience, risks and concern this may have caused,” he said.
The spokesman stressed that Ukraine will provide all relevant information to Lithuanian partners to establish the circumstances and will keep cooperating closely to prevent similar incidents. He thanked Lithuania, “our ally,” for supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression, which he called the main cause of the security threats in the region.
What happened
On Sunday morning Latvia and Lithuania declared an air alert over an unidentified object, and allied military aircraft were scrambled. Debris of a probable drone was later found in the village of Juodžionys in Lithuania’s Pasvalys district. Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said the object was not shot down because of difficult weather that hindered its visual identification. It later emerged that the drone damaged a civilian car; no injuries have been reported so far.