NATO jets shoot down drone over Lithuania and Russian ship fires flares at Danish helicopter

Lithuanian soldiers are securing the area where Italian fighter jets during NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission shot down a drone early this morning near Pratkunai village, Kaisiadorys district some 90km (55,9 miles) northwest of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

VILNIUS, Lithuania — NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, officials said Tuesday, the day after the head of the alliance said strikes close to its territory would only increase its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Military officials in Lithuania, a NATO member, said the incident marked the first time that a drone had been shot down in its airspace. Authorities didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, saying further investigation was needed, but two senior officials said the device was likely carrying explosives.

Officials in other NATO countries, including Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Poland, have in recent weeks accused Russia of involvement in acts such as drone incursions, sabotage, arson and surveillance of defence facilities and in plans to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport.

Separately, Denmark said Tuesday that one of its air force helicopters was fired on with flares as it was carrying out surveillance of a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea.

Strikes close to NATO territory showed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday. He spoke after a Russian drone struck a railway line near the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday shortly after senior visiting officials passed through.

Rutte pledged to bolster the 32-nation alliance’s own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia and with Belarus, a Russian ally.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said the incidents in Lithuania and Denmark were not isolated but “part of a broader pattern of Russian aggression and provocation against Europe, testing our readiness and our resolve.”

“Russia will find our resolve only growing stronger,” she said.

Drone found to be carrying explosives

The drone downed Tuesday in Lithuania fell near the village of Pratkūnai, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) west of the capital, Vilnius, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said Tuesday.

Vilmantas Vitkauskas, head of the crisis center, told Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT that the drone most likely entered from Belarus. It remained in Lithuanian airspace for about 30 minutes and flew along the outskirts of populated areas before being intercepted, he said.

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said an explosive device was detected on the drone and neutralized by bomb-disposal experts.

Menacing drones have repeatedly loomed over the skies of Lithuania, which shares borders with Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

In May, residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter, and the president and prime minister were taken to safe locations during an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus.

Stray Ukrainian drones have also previously crossed the border into Baltic airspace, including in May, when a NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia.

Meanwhile, Denmark accused Russia of firing flares at one of its air force helicopters in connection with “routine photographic coverage” of a Russian frigate in waters off the port of Gedser in the Baltic Sea.

“This is completely unacceptable,” the Danish Foreign Ministry wrote on X, saying that the Russian ambassador was summoned over the incident.

Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said it was “not the first time” that Danish air force helicopters “carried out dangerous maneuvers near Russian warships.”

He said the Danish helicopter conducted “provocative actions against the Russian frigate.”

The Kremlin declined to comment Tuesday, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that he did not have details.

Kyiv says it’s ‘ready to support de-escalation’

In Ukraine, Russian drone strikes continued across the country following a social media post from U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed “not to hit” each other’s energy infrastructure.

Trump didn’t offer details on the purported agreement. Previous efforts to broker even a partial ceasefire have repeatedly fallen apart within hours, with both sides accusing the other of violations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday that Kyiv was “ready to support de-escalation” if the United States could ensure “Russia is genuinely ready to stop this war.”

But Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a statement that Moscow had continued to attack Ukraine’s energy sector, logistics and critical infrastructure, and that Kyiv responded by striking an oil refinery in Syzran, a city in western Russia.

“There is no alternative to ending this war. And all forms of pressure on Russia must create the right diplomatic conditions,” Zelenskyy said.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that it considered Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire on energy infrastructure to be “a good idea.”

However, it stressed that strikes on Russian oil refineries were not the root cause of global supply issues for gas or diesel.

“The core problem lies in the export of petroleum products to global markets,” Peskov said. He said that countries instead needed to guarantee safe navigation for oil tankers and lift global sanctions on Russian oil.

The Kremlin’s comments contradict those of Trump, who on Sunday called on Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and claimed that such attacks had caused a global shortage.

“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters, following news on Friday that diesel prices in the U.S. had soared past an average of $6 a gallon.

“We spoke to Mr. Zelenskyy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world,” he said.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Tuesday that Russian strikes on Kyiv had killed one person and wounded seven other people since the start of the day, with attacks carried out on the capital’s gas stations.

Two more people were killed in separate Russian strikes in the Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the emergency service said.

Elsewhere, Russian forces shot down 222 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday.

A “massive” Ukrainian drone attack sparked several fires in the Russian city of Taganrog, regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said. He said on Telegram that two apartment buildings and three private homes had been damaged, as well as an educational institution, agricultural warehouses and a site belonging to Russian e-retailer Ozon.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Kyiv’s forces had targeted a drone-production facility in the city.

Ukrainian parliament votes to dismiss prosecutor general

In other developments, Ukraine’s parliament voted to dismiss Ruslan Kravchenko from the post of prosecutor general Tuesday.

Kravchenko submitted his resignation on Sept. 7 amid an investigation into corruption in his office, though no notice of suspicion was issued against him. Zelenskyy had suspended Kravchenko from the post the day before. Kravchenko had served as prosecutor general since June 21, 2025.

Repeated corruption scandals have hurt Zelenskyy’s approval ratings.

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Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Liudas Dapkus, The Associated Press