00:01An air raid alert was issued on Wednesday morning across parts of Lithuania, with authorities
00:07urging people to take shelter. Vilnius Airport was briefly closed due to the alert, which was
00:14lifted after less than an hour at 11 in the morning. The country's defense ministry said
00:19NATO Baltic air policing had been activated after a suspected drone had been detected
00:25approaching from Belarus, near to the border. Such alerts have become increasingly common
00:31in Baltic states, such as Estonia and Finland, due to Ukraine stepping up strikes in the nearby
00:38St. Petersburg region. This, however, was the first time in an EU and NATO member state since
00:45Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Latvia's prime minister stepped down last week
00:51after a political row over her response to drones' crash landing in the country.
00:57In a statement posted on social media soon after the alert, European Commission President
01:02von der Leyen placed responsibility on the drone alerts with Russia and Belarus, declaring that
01:08Europe would respond with unity and strength.
Comments