Drone from Belarus shot down over Lithuanian village
A retrospective on the 15 September 2026 incident near the Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant, in which a NATO fighter jet downed a drone.
What happened when a drone crossed from Belarus into Lithuania on 15 September 2026? A NATO fighter jet shot it down over the village of Pratkūnai, in Kaišiadorys District Municipality, close to the Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant.
The incident came two days after an unidentified object flew through Lithuanian airspace from Belarus towards Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
It was listed among violations of non-combatant airspace during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, states near the conflict have reported numerous such violations, particularly NATO members that Russia has designated as "unfriendly states" because of their support for Ukraine. Most have been attributed to Russian military equipment such as drones and aircraft, although Ukrainian equipment was responsible on several occasions.
