By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The drone shot down in Lithuania by an Italian NATO fighter jet on Tuesday was of a type used by Russia and was most likely targeted at Ukraine, Lithuania’s president said on Wednesday.
“It was a Gerbera drone,” Gitanas Nauseda told reporters on Wednesday, referring to a cheap plywood long-range aerial drone used by Russia. Gerbera drones are often used as decoys but can also carry explosives.
“It was most likely not a conscious action against Lithuania. It [the drone] was probably targeted towards Ukraine but affected by Ukrainian electronic warfare and deviated off course,” he added.
The Lithuanian army is analysing the drone’s electronics to determine its targeting, Nauseda said.
The drone is the first suspected Russian drone shot down by the NATO Baltic Air Defence mission, which has patrolled the skies in the region since the Baltic states joined NATO in 2004.
Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have seen repeated drone incursions, fuelling fears of the war between Russia and Ukraine spilling over the alliance’s borders.
Russia has not commented on the incident.
“The security situation has not changed,” Nauseda said. Although there is no large-scale operation against Lithuania or NATO, there could still be “certain incidents, provocation, sabotage acts, including false-flag operations,” he added.
Attacks against Russian opposition activists or Ukrainian supporters are also possible, he said.
Polish prosecutors said on Wednesday that a drone spotted in the Baltic sea and later washed up on a Polish beach on Monday was a Russian Gerbera 2 drone according to preliminary findings.
Colonel Bartosz Okoniewski, the deputy district prosecutor for military affairs at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Poznan, told state news agency PAP the drone was carrying a warhead which was neutralised on the beach overnight.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Hugh Lawson)
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