Lithuania maintains hotline contact with Belarus despite the countries’ strained relations, a senior defence official said Wednesday after reports that Belarus had warned Warsaw and Vilnius of possible drone incursions during Russia’s latest strikes on Ukraine.
“Contact with Belarus was maintained, but we fully understand that Belarus is neither our partner nor in any way an allied state,” Deputy Defence Minister Karolis Aleksa told reporters. “There is a hotline, and when needed, that channel is used.”
During overnight attacks on September 9–10, several Russian drones violated Polish airspace and some were shot down. Belarus later claimed it had alerted both Poland and Lithuania about the potential danger. Poland’s military confirmed receiving such a warning.
Aleksa declined to say whether Minsk had provided Lithuania with useful intelligence. “I won’t comment on that in this case. Every piece of information that comes through the hotline is assessed,” he said.
Lithuanian Chief of Defence Raimundas Vaikšnoras also refused to elaborate, while presidential national security adviser Deividas Matulionis confirmed only that “contacts are maintained” through the hotline.
Their remarks followed a closed-door session of the parliamentary National Security and Defence Committee, which examined whether Russian drones may also have entered Lithuanian airspace.
According to the Defence Ministry, NATO fighter jets deployed on Baltic air policing missions scrambled four times on September 9 and 10 to investigate unidentified objects. Vaikšnoras said the detections turned out to be inconclusive. “They could have been meteorological phenomena, migrating flocks of birds or other things,” he noted.
After the meeting, lawmakers criticised Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė for not attending the session.
“The biggest problem today is with the leadership of the Ministry of Defence. Our main criticism is directed at the minister, who again did not appear before the committee,” said opposition lawmaker Dainius Gaižauskas of the Farmers and Greens Union.
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, deputy chairman of the committee, added that if opposition factions cannot summon Šakalienė directly, they will gather signatures to bring her before the full parliament to answer questions.
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