{"id":116122,"date":"2025-08-05T16:27:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/?p=116122"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:27:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:27:42","slug":"drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"254\" data-end=\"463\"><strong>Lithuania has called on <a href=\"https:\/\/africadailynews.net\/2022\/10\/18\/nato-begins-routine-nuclear-drill-amid-russia-tensions\/\">NATO<\/a> to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military drone, which recently violated its airspace, was equipped with explosives.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"465\" data-end=\"719\">The incident, which occurred on July 28, involved an unmanned aircraft that entered Lithuanian territory and was reportedly observed flying over parts of the capital, Vilnius. Authorities later recovered the drone at a military training site on August 1.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"721\" data-end=\"945\">In response, Lithuania\u2019s Foreign and Defence Ministers jointly appealed to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, requesting urgent support to enhance the country\u2019s air defence posture amid heightened regional security concerns.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"947\" data-end=\"1113\">The appeal comes as tensions remain elevated between NATO members and Russia, with the Baltic states increasingly on edge over airspace intrusions and hybrid threats.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor-general Nida Grunskiene said it was \u201ccarrying an explosive device, which was successfully neutralised by Lithuanian armed forces specialists at the scene\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h1><strong>Read also: <a href=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2024\/05\/24\/rutos-visit-biden-vows-to-designate-kenya-as-non-nato-ally\/\">Ruto\u2019s Visit: Biden Vows To Designate Kenya As \u2018Non-NATO<\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOne of the main theories of the investigation is that the unmanned aircraft accidentally entered Lithuanian territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to stress that other theories are being investigated in parallel,\u201d \u00a0she said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials believe it to be a Russian-made Gerbera drone \u2014 a type usually used as a decoy in Russia\u2019s strikes against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] @[37rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] @[72rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:32rem] @[34rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @[64rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"5ba6237e-63c3-41b7-8ae8-32ea2bb8146a\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-4o\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words dark markdown-new-styling\">\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"191\">Budrys noted that the latest airspace breach marked the second such incident in under a month, adding that similar violations had also been reported by other allied nations in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"193\" data-end=\"368\">He described the situation as a &#8220;real and growing&#8221; threat, stressing that neighbouring Belarus \u2014 a close ally of Moscow \u2014 bore responsibility for preventing such incursions.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"370\" data-end=\"555\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">According to him, if Belarus failed to act to reduce the risk of further violations and potential damage, Lithuania would be compelled to respond with both political and other measures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/\">Africa Today News, New York<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military drone, which recently violated its airspace, was equipped with explosives. The incident, which occurred on July 28, involved an unmanned aircraft that entered Lithuanian territory and was reportedly observed flying over parts of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":116123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6928],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Today News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/africatodaynewsonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Staff001\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@atndaily\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@atndaily\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff001\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Staff001\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5008c3abe6f96b660905c680e145fe70\"},\"headline\":\"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\"},\"wordCount\":314,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Feature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\",\"name\":\"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp\",\"width\":960,\"height\":540,\"caption\":\"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Today News\",\"description\":\"Breaking News from Africa\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"People & Polity Inc. New York\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/atn-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/atn-logo.png\",\"width\":233,\"height\":39,\"caption\":\"People & Polity Inc. New York\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/africatodaynewsonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/atndaily\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5008c3abe6f96b660905c680e145fe70\",\"name\":\"Staff001\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88765ca208af364ea5202e1f88da649c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88765ca208af364ea5202e1f88da649c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Staff001\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/author\/staff001\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover","description":"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover","og_description":"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro","og_url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/","og_site_name":"Africa Today News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/africatodaynewsonline\/","article_published_time":"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Staff001","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@atndaily","twitter_site":"@atndaily","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Staff001","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/"},"author":{"name":"Staff001","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5008c3abe6f96b660905c680e145fe70"},"headline":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover","datePublished":"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/"},"wordCount":314,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp","articleSection":["Feature"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/","url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/","name":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp","datePublished":"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-05T20:27:42+00:00","description":"Lithuania has called on NATO to take swift action to reinforce its air defence systems following the discovery that a Russian military dro","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/08\/05\/drone-incident-spurs-lithuania-to-request-nato-air-cover\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Lithuania-960x540-1.webp","width":960,"height":540,"caption":"Drone Incident Spurs Lithuania To Request NATO Air Cover"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/","name":"Africa Today News","description":"Breaking News from Africa","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#organization","name":"People & Polity Inc. New York","url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/atn-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/atn-logo.png","width":233,"height":39,"caption":"People & Polity Inc. New York"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/africatodaynewsonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/atndaily"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5008c3abe6f96b660905c680e145fe70","name":"Staff001","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88765ca208af364ea5202e1f88da649c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88765ca208af364ea5202e1f88da649c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Staff001"},"url":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/author\/staff001\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116124,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116122\/revisions\/116124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}