VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, the day after the head of the alliance said strikes close to its territory would only increase its support for Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion.
Military officials in Lithuania, a NATO member, said the incident marked the first time that a drone had been shot down in its airspace. Authorities didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, saying the incident needed further investigation, but two senior officials said the device was likely carrying explosives.
Officials in NATO countries including Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Poland have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in acts such as drone incursions, sabotage, arson, surveillance of defense facilities and planning to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport.
Separately, Denmark said Tuesday one of its air force helicopters was fired on with flares as it was carrying out surveillance of a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea.
Strikes close to NATO's territory showed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” its Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday. He was speaking after a Russian drone struck a railway line near the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday shortly after senior visiting officials passed through.
Rutte pledged to bolster the 32-nation alliance's own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia and with Belarus, a Russian ally.
Drone ‘likely’ to be carrying explosives
The drone downed in Lithuania on Tuesday fell near the village of Pratkūnai, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of the capital, Vilnius, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said Tuesday.
Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the crisis center, told Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT that the drone most likely entered from Belarus. It remained in Lithuanian airspace for about 30 minutes and flew along the outskirts of populated areas before being intercepted, he said.
Antanas Matutis, commander of the Lithuanian air force, said that the wreckage had been found, and the drone was “likely” carrying explosives.
The menace of drones has repeatedly loomed over the skies of Lithuania, which shares borders with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
In May, residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter and the president and prime minister were taken to safe locations amid an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus.
Stray Ukrainian drones have also previously crossed the border into Baltic airspace, including in May when a NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia.
Meanwhile, Denmark accused Russia of firing flares at one of its air force helicopters in connection with “routine photographic coverage” of a Russian frigate in waters off the port of Gedser in the Baltic Sea.
“This is completely unacceptable,” the Danish Foreign Ministry wrote on X, saying that the Russian ambassador was summoned over the incident.
Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said it was “not the first time” that Danish Air Force helicopters “carried out dangerous maneuvers near Russian warships.”
He also said that the Danish helicopter had carried out “provocative actions against the Russian frigate.”
The Kremlin declined to comment Tuesday, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that he did not have details of the event.
Kyiv says it's ‘ready to support de-escalation’
Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes continued across Ukraine following a social media post from U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure.
Trump didn't offer further details on the purported agreement. Previous efforts to broker even a partial ceasefire have repeatedly fallen apart within hours, with both sides accusing each other of violations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday that Kyiv was “ready to support de-escalation” if the United States could ensure “Russia is genuinely ready to stop this war.”
But Zelenskyy said in a statement on Tuesday that Moscow had continued to attack Ukraine's energy sector, logistics and critical infrastructure, and that Kyiv had responded by striking an oil refinery in Syzran, a city in western Russia.
“There is no alternative to ending this war. And all forms of pressure on Russia must create the right diplomatic conditions,” Zelenskyy said.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that it considered Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire on energy infrastructure to be “a good idea.”
However, it stressed that strikes on Russian oil refineries were not the root cause of global supply issues for gas or diesel.
“The core problem lies in the export of petroleum products to global markets,” said Peskov. He said that countries instead needed to guarantee safe navigation for oil tankers and lift global sanctions on Russian oil.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Tuesday that Russian strikes on Kyiv had killed one person and wounded seven other people since the start of the day, with attacks carried out on the capital's gas stations.
Another two people were killed in separate Russian strikes in the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Elsewhere, Russian forces shot down 222 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
A “massive” Ukrainian drone attack sparked several fires in the Russian city of Taganrog, regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said. He said on Telegram that two apartment buildings and three private homes had been damaged, as well as an educational institution, agricultural warehouses and a site belonging to Russian e-retailer Ozon.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv's forces had targeted a drone production facility in the city.
Ukrainian parliament votes to dismiss prosecutor general
Ukraine’s parliament voted to dismiss Ruslan Kravchenko from the post of prosecutor general Tuesday, as a series of graft investigations pushed tensions in Kyiv to a new high.
Kravchenko submitted his resignation on Sept. 7 amid a National Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation into corruption in his office, though no notice of suspicion was issued against him. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had suspended Kravchenko from the post the day before. Kravchenko had served as prosecutor general since June 21, 2025.
Various corruption scandals have hurt Zelenskyy’s approval ratings at a time when Ukraine is still fighting for survival against Russia’s 4 1/2-year full-scale invasion.
___ Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
