Lithuania has closed its airspace over parts of the country’s border with Kremlin-allied Belarus after drones entered the country in two separate incidents in July, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
The closures, which were put in place on August 13, also come ahead of joint Belarusian-Russian military exercises taking place in Belarus in September.
“This was done taking into account the security situation and threats to society, including risks to civil aviation posed by unmanned aircraft violating airspace,” the defence ministry told the Baltic News Service (BNS), adding that the measure will allow the country’s military to respond to airspace violations.
An unarmed Gerbera-type drone used by Russia entered Lithuania from Belarus on July 10, prompting some Lithuanian officials to be taken to a bomb shelter.
A second Gerbera-type drone, armed with explosives, entered the country from Belarus on July 28 and crashed at a military training area after flying over parts of the country’s capital, Vilnius.
There was a similar incident in Poland on Wednesday when a Russian military drone flew in from Belarus and exploded in a field 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Warsaw.
The closures in Lithuania were only announced in the media on Thursday and will remain in place until October 1.
The ban could be extended “if the threat of unmanned aerial vehicles entering the Lithuanian airspace did not decrease,” the defence ministry said.
Lithuanian officials said on Wednesday the country would be stepping up border protection amid the upcoming Zapad (West) military drills in Belarus and Russia in September, which the Lithuanian defence ministry said will include up to 30,000 troops.
The previous iteration in 2021 saw around 200,000 troops take part in the drills which preceded the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and simulated a war with NATO, Western officials said at the time.
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