Turkey deploys warning plane to Lithuania under NATO measures after Russian airspace violations

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey temporarily deployed a warning and control aircraft to Lithuania as part of NATO security measures, the defence ministry said on Thursday, following repeated airspace violations by Russian drones.

Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Poland have all said Russian drones or fighter jets have violated their airspace in recent weeks, prompting the NATO alliance to beef up defence around Europe's eastern flank. 

"Within the scope of NATO Assurance Measures, our Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft is carrying out missions in Lithuanian airspace between September 22-25," the ministry said in its weekly press statement. 

AWACS are capable of detecting low-flying drones and other objects that ground radars miss. 

The ministry provided no further information. 

Poland has shot down some of the drones, and Lithuania's parliament on Tuesday granted the armed forces powers to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace.

Western officials say Russia is carrying out the airspace violations to test NATO's readiness and resolve. Estonia and Poland have asked the alliance to open consultations under Article 4 of the NATO treaty.

Article 4 says members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.

Turkey, NATO's second largest army, has strong ties with Russia in areas including energy and tourism. It has condemned Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and provided Kyiv with military support, but refrained from joining Western sanctions against Russia as part of a balancing act that it says helps it talk to both sides.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Barbara Lewis)