NATO jets down drone in Lithuania as alliance warns over border strikes

NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said on Tuesday, in the first such incident in the country. The development came less than a day after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said strikes close to the alliance's territory would lead the trans-Atlantic organisation to step up support for Kyiv.

As the incident in Lithuania raised fresh concerns along NATO's eastern flank, fighting also continued in and around Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was "ready to support de-escalation", while Russian drone strikes continued across Ukraine and Moscow said it had shot down 222 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre said the drone was brought down near the village of Pratkunai in the Kaiiadorys district, about 100 kilometres west of Vilnius and near the Kaunas Reservoir. Lithuania's military said it was the first time a drone had been shot down in the country's airspace.