Article · Geopolitics · Lithuania
A drone came down in Pasvalys district and damaged a car, and not everyone got the warning. What we know about the morning of 18 October 2026
At about 07:00 on 18 October 2026 Lithuania declared a red air alert in Šiauliai and Panevėžys counties and a yellow one in Kaunas, and Kaunas airport closed temporarily. At 07:28 police were told an object had fallen in the village of Juodžionys in Pasvalys district; debris damaged a moving car and nobody was hurt. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas says it was a Ukrainian drone that strayed during Ukraine's attack on St Petersburg because of Russian electronic warfare, and that it came in from Poland. Poland's defence ministry says its radars did not confirm the border crossing. Ukraine apologised. NATO jets did not shoot the object down because fog stopped the pilots seeing it. The same night an attempt to set fire to a Lithuanian company that stores Starlink equipment failed, and the prime minister blames Russia.
A Ukrainian drone headed for St Petersburg, in the words of Lithuania's defence minister, came down in Pasvalys district and damaged a moving car. Fighter jets tracked it but could not shoot it down, and not every resident who should have been warned was warned.
The same night an attempt to set fire to a Lithuanian company that stores Starlink equipment failed. The minister does not link the two events, but both raise the same question: how fast the state sees a threat and tells people about it.