NATO Jets Twice Fail to Shoot Down Drone Over Lithuania as Missile Debris Falls Near Birzai

NATO fighter jets made two unsuccessful attempts to shoot down an unidentified drone that crossed Lithuania overnight, and a missile fired during the chase fell to the ground in the north of the country. The drone flew on through Latvia and Estonia and, as far as Lithuanian officials know, continued into Russia.

The incident, on the night of Tuesday 10 to Wednesday 11 November 2026, set off air alerts across large parts of Lithuania, closed two airports, and left the alliance facing awkward questions about how hard it is to bring down a slow-moving drone over its own territory — even when its jets find it, track it, and fire at it.

Lithuania’s defence minister said the drone was most likely Ukrainian and had drifted off course during an attack on targets in Russia. That has not been confirmed, and the drone’s type — and whether it was carrying explosives — is still unknown.

At a glance

• What happened: A drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus after midnight on 11 November 2026 and flew the length of the country. NATO jets tried twice to shoot it down and missed both times.
• The missile: One missile fired by a NATO jet missed its target, self-destructed, and its debris was found in the Birzai district of northern Lithuania.
• The alerts: Red “take shelter” alerts were issued in several regions, and Vilnius and Kaunas airports were temporarily closed. Three flights at Vilnius were affected, disrupting travel for more than 400 passengers.
• Where the drone went: After leaving Lithuania near Pasvalys, it flew through Latvia and Estonia and, according to the Lithuanian military, continued into Russia.
• Whose drone was it: Unconfirmed. Lithuania’s defence minister said it was most likely Ukrainian and off course; the president said it was not yet possible to tell whether it was Ukrainian or Russian.

What happened over Lithuania

The night began not with a drone, but with balloons. At around 21:30 on Tuesday 10 November, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre was warned of possible balloons that could disrupt air traffic. Vilnius Airport restricted its operations, and Kaunas Airport was then closed as well.

The first air alert followed at around 23:00, a yellow alert for the Vilnius and Utena regions. It was lifted shortly after midnight. During that first episode, three drones were detected over Belarus, on the other side of the border. None of them entered Lithuanian airspace, according to Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the National Crisis Management Centre. One of those aircraft crossed into Latvia instead and later flew toward northern Russia.

The second episode was different. At around 01:20 on Wednesday, a fourth drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus near Druskininkai, a resort town in the south of the country. It may have briefly crossed into Poland before turning back north, then flew through the Marijampole, Kaunas and Panevezys regions before leaving Lithuanian airspace near Pasvalys, close to the Latvian border.

Red alerts — the kind that tell residents to take shelter — were issued in several regions along the drone’s path, including Kaunas and Panevezys. According to AeroTime, the red alerts ran from 00:38 to 02:02, and all of them had been lifted by 02:49.

Lithuania’s prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, said four drones had been spotted across the region during what he called “a difficult night”. He confirmed on Facebook that an attempt had been made to bring down a drone above northern Lithuania, and that debris from a missile fired by a NATO fighter jet had been found near Birzai.

Two failed attempts to shoot it down

The jets scrambled to meet the drone belong to NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, the standing force that guards the skies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Rear Admiral Giedrius Premeneckas, chief of the Lithuanian Defence Staff, told reporters that the jets identified the drone near Kaunas but did not fire there, because it was over a city and falling debris could have hurt people on the ground.

“Flying north towards Panevezys, air defence aircraft made two attempts to destroy this unmanned aerial vehicle. The attempts were unsuccessful due to various conditions,” Premeneckas said, according to LRT, Lithuania’s public broadcaster.

One of the missiles fired missed its target and self-destructed. Its remains came down in the Birzai district, in northern Lithuania, where emergency services searched the area and a special response plan known as Skydas — “Shield” — was put into force at the site.

Vitkauskas suggested two possible reasons for the misses. “The fighter jets came quite close to making contact,” he told LRT Radio, adding that it could have been due to poor weather, or that it may have been an area where shooting down a drone would have been unsafe.

The prime minister urged residents not to approach or touch any suspicious object, but to report it to the authorities.

After the failed attempts, the drone kept flying. It crossed into Latvia, where the Latvian National Armed Forces issued an airspace threat warning for several municipalities and activated drone interceptors, air defence units and NATO air policing jets. But according to Euronews, the fighters in Latvia could not get into position for a shot before the drone crossed into Estonia and on into Russia. The Latvian armed forces said the drone eventually disappeared from their tracking systems.

A night of alerts and closed airports

For ordinary Lithuanians, the most visible effect of the night was disruption. Vilnius and Kaunas airports were temporarily closed because of the incidents, and three flights at Vilnius Airport were affected, disrupting travel for more than 400 passengers, according to Vitkauskas. Euronews put the number at around 470 passengers.

The alerts themselves were a reminder of how quickly a distant war can reach into daily life in the Baltic states. Phones lit up with red alerts telling people to take shelter — in Kaunas, Panevezys and other regions along the drone’s route — in the middle of the night, for an object that nobody could identify.

Lithuania has dealt with this kind of disruption before. Smuggler balloons launched from Belarus have repeatedly forced Vilnius Airport to restrict operations, and the warning about balloons on Tuesday evening was part of that same pattern. But a drone crossing the whole country, with NATO jets firing at it, is a far more serious event.

Whose drone was it?

That is the question nobody in Vilnius can yet answer with certainty — and the answers given so far point in different directions.

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told LRT that the drones were most likely Ukrainian, aimed at the Russian port of Ust-Luga and other targets in Russia, and had drifted off course. A Lithuanian military official said it was possible the aircraft had been disrupted during a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russia that night. Russia did report a drone attack on the Ust-Luga port on the same night.

Other officials were more careful. President Gitanas Nauseda said there was no confirmed information on the drone’s type, and that it was not yet possible to tell whether it was Ukrainian or Russian. Premeneckas said the same: Lithuania’s military chief said there was no confirmed information on whether the drone was Ukrainian, Russian or another type.

The distinction matters. If the drone was Ukrainian and off course, the incident is a dangerous accident of a war being fought next door — a weapon that lost its way because of electronic warfare or bad weather and wandered across three NATO countries. If it was Russian, it would be a deliberate test of NATO’s air defences, and a much more serious matter.

Investigators are also looking at whether electronic warfare may have diverted the drone from its original course. For now, officials say the drone’s type and whether it was carrying a warhead remain unknown.

What is NATO’s Baltic Air Policing?

The jets that chased the drone are part of a mission that has guarded Baltic skies since 2004, when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined NATO. The three countries are too small to maintain their own fighter fleets, so allies take turns sending jets to patrol their airspace from Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania.

According to AeroTime, the mission is currently led by four Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons based at Siauliai, reinforced by six Belgian F-16s.

The mission’s job is to identify unknown aircraft, escort them away, and — if necessary — shoot them down. On the night of 10–11 November, it did the first two things and failed at the third. That failure is what makes the incident more than a footnote: the jets found the drone, followed it across the country, and fired at it twice, and it still flew on.

Shooting down a small drone from a fast jet is genuinely hard. Drones are small, slow and hard to see on radar. Firing a missile over a populated area risks killing people on the ground with the debris — which is exactly why the jets held their fire over Kaunas, and why one of the missiles that did miss had to destroy itself in the air. But the result is still uncomfortable for an alliance that has spent years promising to defend every inch of its members’ territory.

Why this matters

The Lithuania incident is the latest in a series of drone incursions into NATO airspace since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Drones have crossed into Poland, Romania and the Baltic states before, and each time the same questions come up: whose drone was it, why could it not be stopped, and what happens next time?

For the Baltic states, the stakes are higher than for most NATO members. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sit on the alliance’s eastern edge, next to Russia and its ally Belarus. They have no fighter jets of their own. Their air defence depends entirely on allies — and on systems that, as this week showed, do not always work as advertised.

The incident also comes at a sensitive moment. Lithuania’s president recently rejected a Russian demand to withdraw NATO troops from Eastern European countries, saying the alliance-centred European security architecture should remain unchanged. The demand, and the rejection, are part of a wider argument about the future of European security — an argument in which a drone wandering across Lithuania in the middle of the night is not an abstraction.

For Ukraine, the incident is awkward in a different way. If the drone was Ukrainian, Kyiv will face questions about how one of its weapons ended up flying across three NATO countries and forcing airports to close. Ukrainian drones have struck deep inside Russia before, including at ports and oil facilities, and long-range missions over the Baltic Sea are part of that campaign. A drone blown off course by electronic warfare is a plausible accident — but it is still an accident that NATO will want explained.

What happens next

Lithuanian investigators are examining the missile debris found in the Birzai district, and the armed forces are continuing to piece together the drone’s route and origin. The question of whether it was Ukrainian, Russian or something else will not be settled by speculation — it will need evidence from the wreckage, from radar records, and from the drone itself, if it is ever found.

NATO will also have to review what went wrong over Birzai. Two failed attempts to destroy a single drone, in clear view of the alliance’s own jets, will be studied closely — not just in Vilnius, but in every NATO capital. The mission may change its tactics, its weapons, or the rules on when jets are allowed to fire over populated areas.

For the people of Lithuania, the immediate question is simpler: will it happen again? The balloons from Belarus have not stopped. The war in Ukraine has not stopped. And the next drone that drifts off course may not fly over empty countryside. It may fly over a city — where, as the jets over Kaunas showed, shooting it down is not a simple option at all.

Frequently asked questions

What happened over Lithuania on the night of 10–11 November 2026?

A drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus after midnight, flew north across the country, and left near Pasvalys toward Latvia. NATO fighter jets made two unsuccessful attempts to shoot it down near Birzai. One missile missed, self-destructed, and its debris was found in the Birzai district.

Where did the drone go after Lithuania?

It flew through Latvia and Estonia and, according to the Lithuanian military, continued into Russia. The Latvian armed forces said it eventually disappeared from their tracking systems.

Whose drone was it?

Its origin is unconfirmed. Lithuania’s defence minister said it was most likely Ukrainian, aimed at targets in Russia including the port of Ust-Luga, and had drifted off course. The president and the military chief said it was not yet possible to tell whether it was Ukrainian or Russian.

Why did the NATO jets miss?

The jets identified the drone near Kaunas but did not fire over the city because of the risk to civilians. The two attempts near Birzai failed “due to various conditions”, according to the Lithuanian defence staff chief. Officials suggested poor weather or safety concerns may have played a part.

What is NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission?

It is the standing NATO mission that guards the skies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which have no fighter jets of their own. It is currently led by four Italian Eurofighter Typhoons at Siauliai Air Base, reinforced by six Belgian F-16s.

Were airports affected?

Yes. Vilnius and Kaunas airports were temporarily closed. Three flights at Vilnius Airport were affected, disrupting travel for more than 400 passengers.

Conclusion

A drone crossed Lithuania in the middle of the night, NATO’s best jets chased it and fired at it twice, and it flew on anyway — across Latvia and Estonia and into Russia, leaving a missile’s debris in a field near Birzai.

If the drone was Ukrainian and off course, the incident is a warning about how easily a war fought next door can spill into NATO territory by accident. If it was Russian, it is a warning of a different kind. Either way, it showed something uncomfortable: that finding a drone and stopping a drone are two very different things, and that the gap between them is measured in the skies over towns like Kaunas, where jets cannot fire without risking the people below.

The investigation will tell us whose drone it was. The harder question — how NATO stops the next one — will take longer to answer.

Sources

• LRT (Lithuanian public broadcaster), via Anadolu Agency / TRT World — NATO jets scrambled after suspected drone incursions over Lithuania: https://www.trtworld.com/article/744363f5b968
• LRT, via Militarnyi — NATO Fighter Jets Twice Fail to Shoot Down Unknown Drone Over Lithuania: https://militarnyi.com/en/news/nato-fighter-jets-twice-fail-to-shoot-down-unknown-drone-over-lithuania/
• Daily Baltic — NATO jets fail twice to shoot down drone over Lithuania: https://www.dailybaltic.com/44321/nato-jets-fail-twice-to-shoot-down-drone-over-lithuania/
• Euronews, via Europe Says — Lithuania Drone: NATO Fighters Fire Twice and Miss: https://www.europesays.com/nato/21012/
• Anadolu Agency, via Yeni Safak — NATO jets scrambled after Lithuania drone alerts: https://en.yenisafak.com/world/nato-jets-scrambled-after-lithuania-drone-alerts-3725443
• AeroTime, via Europe Says — on the Baltic Air Policing detachment and alert timings: https://www.europesays.com/nato/21012/

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.