Lithuanian authorities have stated that a drone that crossed into Lithuanian airspace and was shot down on the 15th (local time) was a Russian military drone, believed to have been pushed off course by Ukrainian electronic warfare.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said on the 16th, "According to current intelligence, it was a Gerbera drone," adding, "It is highly likely that the Russian drone, heading toward Ukraine, deviated from its course due to Ukrainian electronic warfare and entered our airspace."

President Nausėda added that it does not appear to have been a deliberate attack targeting Lithuania.

The Gerbera drone is a low-cost decoy drone made of plywood and Styrofoam, but it can also be equipped with explosives.

The drone in question crossed the border from Belarus equipped with an explosive device and entered Lithuanian airspace.

It flew for about 30 minutes before being shot down by an Italian fighter jet belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the skies of Kaunas, more than 100 kilometers away from the border.

Until now, most drones that have violated the airspace of the three Baltic states—Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—were Ukrainian military drones that had originally targeted oil export facilities in western Russia before being knocked off course by Russian electronic warfare.

On the 14th, a Russian military Gerbera-2 drone was also discovered off the coast of Jaroslawiec in northwestern Poland.

Polish prosecutors stated that they had detached and neutralized the warhead mounted on this drone.

Given that no airspace violation cases have been detected since late July, the Polish military believes this drone drifted across the Baltic Sea and washed ashore on its coast.

European security authorities suspect that whenever unidentified drones are spotted over critical infrastructure such as airports or military bases, it could be a deliberate operation by Russia to test the preparedness of the NATO alliance.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)