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Vilnius sounds air raid alert over drone signal
Summary
A drone signal near the Belarusian border led Lithuania to order residents of its capital to take shelter, a step no EU or NATO member had taken before in this war.
What happened in Vilnius on 20 May 2026? Lithuania issued an air raid alert in the capital after its military detected a drone signal near the Belarusian border. It was the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that an EU and NATO member state had ordered its general population to take shelter.
A run of airspace incidents
The alert came a day after Estonia reported that a Romanian NATO F-16 fighter jet had shot down a drone over Estonian territory on 19 May 2026. The drone was suspected to be of Ukrainian origin and to have been affected by Russian electronic warfare mechanisms.
Both episodes belong to the broader category of violations of non-combatant airspace during the Russo-Ukrainian war, in which aircraft or drones from the conflict enter the skies of countries that are not fighting in it.
Nuclear drills in Belarus
Two days before the Vilnius alert, on 18 May 2026, the Belarusian defence ministry announced that its military had begun joint training exercises with Russia on nuclear weapons combat. The drone signal in Lithuania was detected near the Belarusian border.
Changes in Ukraine
On 18 May 2026, a law also entered into force in Ukraine that simplifies the legalisation of foreign personnel serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard.
