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Two Italian Eurofighter Typhoons flying under NATO command shot down a drone in Lithuanian airspace overnight Tuesday, the first drone ever brought down over Lithuanian territory.

Getting into it: The drone entered from Belarus shortly after midnight and spent roughly half an hour over Lithuania, tracking along the edges of populated areas before the jets caught it near the village of Pratkūnai in the Kaišiadorys district, about 60 miles from Vilnius and close to Kaunas. Drone alerts went out to phones across Vilnius, Kaunas and the surrounding regions, telling people to get somewhere safe and stay there until the warning lifted.

Antanas Matutis, who commands the Lithuanian air force, said the recovered wreckage probably carried explosives. The operation ran through NATO’s Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, Germany, with the Italian jets flying out of Šiauliai Air Base as part of the Baltic Air Defense mission.

Nobody has confirmed where it came from. Lithuanian authorities are examining the debris, which video from the crash site showed scattered across a field. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said the drone “most probably came from Russia.” A Ukrainian military source told Reuters the parts in the footage looked like a Geran-2, one of the long-range attack drones Russia uses. If it does turn out to be Russian, it would be the first one Lithuania has shot down. The last Russian drones to reach its territory, two military models in the summer of 2025, came down by accident.

The alternative explanation is not reassuring either. Ukrainian drones keep wandering into NATO airspace over the Baltics, and Kyiv blames Russian jamming for knocking them off their flight paths.

Either way, Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said the Italian intervention showed “the value of the Atlantic alliance” and “what it means to be an ally.” President Gitanas Nausėda said that “with Russia intensifying its aggression against Ukraine, such readiness is vital for our region.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen placed the incident in a broader pattern of “aggression and provocation” against Europe. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul blamed Russia directly. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that “recent days show that Russia’s actions threaten the security of the entire Europe.” UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said NATO “once again demonstrated our readiness to protect our airspace.”

Russia has not commented.