Lithuaniaʼs Defense Minister says drone that crashed in country is Russian “Gerbera” drone

Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Dovilė Šakalienė stated that the drone that flew into the countryʼs territory from Belarus on July 10 and crashed was a Russian Gerber drone.

This is reported by the Lithuanian media LRT.

The minister emphasizes that this incident was most likely unintentional. However, with the approach of the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises "West", provocations on the Lithuanian border may become more frequent.

Lithuanian State Border Guard Service officers spotted the flying object at around 11:30 a.m. It was flying at an altitude of around 100 meters, at a speed of 50-60 kmph. The drone descended and fell to the ground a few minutes later.

The drone was not shot down by military means, as they are not used in peacetime. A representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Major Ginttautas Ciunis, stated: "If there was martial law, the object would have been shot down immediately by military means. In peacetime, we do not shoot down aircraft with air defense means, completely different algorithms are used, available facts, intelligence information and simple military mathematics are assessed everywhere".

The Lithuanian Armed Forces also stated that after receiving information about the violation of airspace, fighter jets carrying out a NATO air patrol mission in Lithuania were ordered to respond. However, after the object fell, the mission was canceled.

• On the night of July 10, the Russians attacked Ukraine with 415 drones and missiles. The main target of the strike was Kyiv.

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