Overview

• Lithuania’s foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys and defence minister Dovile Šakalienė sent a joint letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urging immediate air defence reinforcements and accelerated rotational deployments.
• Two wooden Gerbera drones crossed in from Belarus in July, with the first on July 10 found harmless and the second crashing in a training area on July 28 with roughly 2 kilograms of explosives.
• The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with the Belarusian chargé d’affaires in Vilnius over the illegal drone incursions.
• In their appeal, the ministers argued that securing every centimetre of NATO’s eastern flank is essential to the alliance’s collective defence.
• NATO said it is closely monitoring the situation and that SACEUR General Grynkewich is empowered to deploy detection and counter-drone capabilities.