Lithuania Sends Note of Protest to Belarus Over Uninvited Russian Drone 'Visit'

The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent Belarus a note of protest in connection with the Gerbera drone that flew into the country's territory.

The Gaze writes about it, referring to a post by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on Facebook.

"Today (16 July), the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry summoned the chargé d'affaires of Belarus and handed him a note of protest expressing protest over the fact that a Gerbera drone illegally flew into Lithuanian territory on 10 July. The drone crashed on Lithuanian territory, about a kilometre from the border. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry demands that Belarus provide an explanation for this incident as soon as possible and take measures to prevent such incidents from recurring," the Foreign Ministry said.

According to Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys, the fact that a military drone flew into Lithuania is the responsibility of Belarus, which allowed this to happen.

The minister called the appearance of the Gerbera in Lithuania a ‘serious violation.’ Lithuania was unable to quickly identify the object, so it had to call in the air police.

"This is probably what happened, and an investigation is underway. Of course, there are services that collect and evaluate this information and establish the whole picture – so, probably, this incident is related to Ukraine, one of the drones used in the group flew into Lithuania. But there is one point: this time it was a mock drone, next time it may not be a mock," Budris said, noting that Lithuania must strengthen its airspace defence.

As The Gaze reported earlier, on 10 July, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service reported that an aircraft resembling a homemade drone had flown in from Belarus. It later became known that it was a Gerbera unmanned aerial vehicle.

Against the backdrop of this incident, EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius called on Lithuania and neighbouring countries to build a regional ‘wall against drones’ and prepare for the mass production of unmanned aerial vehicles.