Political leaders in Lithuania were briefly directed to air raid shelters on Thursday after the alarm was raised over an airspace violation from Belarus, Lithuanian media reported. Media reports stated that Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and Parliament Speaker Saulius Skvernelis were taken to safety as a precaution while the situation was being investigated. Lithuania's President Gitanas Nausėda is currently on a foreign trip in Ireland. Authorities were initially concerned that the unidentified flying object could be an Iranian-made Shahed drone of the type used by Russia in ongoing air strikes on Ukraine, the BNS news agency reported. The Lithuanian army confirmed in a post on Facebook that the object was detected at 11:30 am local time (10:30 am CEST). Fighter jets that were already in the air as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission were scrambled to respond to the incident when the object fell to the ground around 1 kilometre from the border with Belarus. A closer investigation revealed that the object was an unmanned, makeshift plane reportedly made of plywood and foam, and it did not pose any danger. The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) said it had often recorded cases of attempts to transport contraband cigarettes from Belarus into Lithuania using balloons or makeshift drones. — Euronews
