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What happened over Lithuania on 15 September 2026?
Summary
A look back at the day a drone from Belarus was shot down by a NATO jet, and at the events of the days before it.
What happened in the skies over Lithuania on 15 September 2026? A drone crossed from Belarusian airspace into Lithuania and was shot down by a NATO fighter jet over the village of Pratkūnai, in Kaišiadorys District Municipality, near the Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant.
The incident came two days after an unidentified object flew over Lithuanian airspace from Belarus towards Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast. Together, the two episodes fitted a pattern of airspace violations near the war zone. States close to the conflict, particularly NATO members that Russia had designated "unfriendly states", had reported numerous such violations since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Most were attributed to Russian military equipment such as drones and aircraft, though Ukrainian equipment was also responsible on several occasions.
A strike on a train bound for Warsaw
On 13 September 2026, a Russian drone attacked a train bound for Warsaw, Poland, at Yahodyn station in western Ukraine. The strike came shortly after former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and top EU security officials had passed through the airspace. Former U.S. CIA director David Petraeus was also at the station at the time of the strike but was unharmed.
Sanctions over alleged propaganda
The same day, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on his former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, and nine others. They were accused of spreading Russian propaganda and supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine. The 10-year sanctions include asset freezes and trade restrictions.
The measures belonged to the wider information war that accompanied the invasion, in which Russian state and state-controlled media have spread disinformation against Ukraine.
The picture on 15 September
The events of 13 and 15 September sat on different fronts: a strike on Ukrainian rail infrastructure, a legal move against alleged propagandists, and a NATO jet downing a drone over a member state's territory. All three belonged to a war that, by then, had been under way since February 2022.
