00:00The Baltics have been rattled by repeated drone incursions in recent weeks,
00:05the latest being an incursion into Lithuania on Wednesday.
00:09For more on this story, I'm joined on set by our EU correspondent, Angela Skujins.
00:14Good morning, Angela.
00:15First of all, bring us up to speed on what exactly happened in Lithuania yesterday.
00:20Good morning, Madden.
00:21So to put it bluntly, the Baltics are on high alert,
00:24tenterhooks regarding, as you rightly pointed out, what exactly happened.
00:28So at 10 a.m., civilians received a text message telling them
00:32that they should seek shelter immediately with their families.
00:36The airports were ground to a halt as well as civilian traffic.
00:39The Prime Minister and the President were also shuttled to a bunker underground
00:44while officials above ground scrambled to try and figure out what was going on in their skies.
00:49The security incident only lasted for one hour.
00:53At roughly 11 a.m., the alert was lifted.
00:55And our general understanding is that a drone entered Lithuanian airspace
01:00from the border along Belarus.
01:03But it's also really important to point out that this is not a freak incident.
01:06If we can take a look at this map here, we can see that there have been at least
01:09six drone incursion or suspected drone incursions since the beginning of May
01:14occurring over the skies of Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, as well as Estonia.
01:20We believe that most of these drones are Ukrainian in origin.
01:25However, have been pushed into European airspace by Moscow GPS jamming.
01:31And given all this, Angela, what happens next and what's been the reaction from Lithuania?
01:36Yes.
01:37So we know that the European Union have been trumpeting for at least a year that,
01:42according to national security services, that foreign agents such as Russia could be ready
01:48to attack the continent by 2030.
01:51This is why the EU have pumped a whopping €800 billion into beefing up the EU's defences,
01:57particularly that 3,500 kilometre border along the east.
02:02The big question here, however, is whether the EU can stay one step ahead of Moscow.
02:07We've seen that they've become incredibly creative when it comes to sowing panic,
02:12creating division within the Baltics as well as the EU member states when it comes to supporting
02:17Ukraine.
02:18I managed to speak with the Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertus Kaunas this morning,
02:23and the first question I asked him was whether Moscow was successful creating the panic.
02:29Yesterday, Lithuania experienced a drone incursion into our airspace,
02:33but our armed forces rather detected the drone's type object, let's say,
02:41before it crossed into Lithuanian airspace, so we may be able to detect it earlier.
02:49NATO air police mission was activated, so two portuguese fighter jets
02:54scranded to intercept the drone.
02:57It's important to emphasize, actually, how crucial that NATO air police mission is in the Baltic states.
03:07And here I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all NATO countries participating in this mission.
03:17People were alerted about the need to go to the shelters, and here no panic were detected.
03:25Everyone were calm.
03:28The response, I think, was timely.
03:32This is the new, actually, reality what Baltic states face.
03:36So we need to adapt because possible repeating of similar scenarios is very high.
03:46Well, NATO eastern flank countries, actually facing all NATO eastern flank countries,
03:51facing similar accidents, and NATO airspace has been violated multiple times in recent days.
04:00So we managed to react on time correctly, but we need to increase and enhance our airspace defence.
04:12Minister, you mentioned there that there was no panic.
04:15However, the Lithuanians that I've spoken to sound quite emotional, recounting the stories of yesterday.
04:21How are you going to reassure them that Lithuania is safe?
04:26Lithuania is a member of the NATO alliance.
04:30We have a strong commitment from our allies that we are not alone, and NATO air police mission is here.
04:41Additionally, we are investing a lot in our air defence capabilities.
04:45New radars are coming.
04:47Part of them are already in Lithuania.
04:50Interceptor drones, air defence experts from Ukraine arriving to Lithuania to help us enhance our air defence capabilities.
05:01But, Minister, you mentioned all of this technology to repel Russian drones.
05:06They're cheap, we know this, but how confident are you that Lithuania can repel real Russian aggression when and if
05:14it comes?
05:14We're talking about tanks rolling across the border.
05:19Our investments with our national defence needs is 5.38% of GDP.
05:24It's the highest volume among all NATO countries.
05:29So we are doing our homeworks.
05:31That's how this works.
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