Lithuania authorises army to shoot down drones violating its airspace

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania's parliament granted the Baltic country's armed forces powers on Tuesday to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace following incidents in which it said two Russian drones crashed on its territory.

Lithuania's army is currently able to target drones only if they are determined to be armed or pose an imminent danger to objects important to the state.

This will change under a law that was passed with the backing of 117 of the 141 members of Lithuanian parliament under emergency procedures and will be valid in the NATO and European Union member state from October.

VIOLATIONS OF NATO MEMBER STATES' AIRSPACE

"Now we can quickly react in any way, including the destruction of drones", said Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene.

"Our laws and procedures were not adapted to current threats... we can now react at the speed of lightning".

The new law authorises Lithuania's chief of defence to close down parts of Lithuanian airspace and to shoot down any drone inside "which violates rules set out by the chief of defence".

NATO said on Tuesday it would use "all necessary military and non-military tools" to defend itself after what it said was "a pattern of increasingly irresponsible behaviour" by Moscow following recent violations of NATO member states' airspace.

Lithuania asked NATO in August for more air defences after two military drones chrashed into its territory from Belarus, and Denmark said on Tuesday that drones that halted flights at its main airport on Monday were linked to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had violated its airspace for 12 minutes before being escorted out by NATO fighter jets.

Poland said some 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10, prompting NATO jets to shoot some of them down and the alliance to beef up the defence of Europe's eastern flank.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius)