Particle.news

NATO Jet Downs Explosive-Equipped Drone Over Lithuania From Belarus

The shoot-down signals the Ukraine war’s drone campaign is spilling across borders, prompting allied shoot-downs, diplomatic protests, and stepped-up air-defence measures

Overview

  • The NATO interception took place on the night of Sept. 14–15 when an Italian Eurofighter shot a drone that crossed from Belarus into central Lithuania and crashed near Pratkunai.
  • Lithuanian bomb-disposal teams found and neutralised an explosive device among the wreckage and the debris is under forensic examination to establish origin.
  • President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia twice tried to target his presidential plane with drones while he was in Moldova, a claim that follows earlier drone alerts around Chișinău.
  • A Russian drone strike on a passenger minibus near Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region killed five people and wounded seven, underscoring growing civilian harm from drone attacks.
  • Governments have responded with diplomatic and security measures, with Lithuania summoning a Belarusian envoy, Poland reinforcing its border, NATO pledging stronger air policing, and Ukraine testing a new anti-drone interceptor.