Lithuania on Tuesday requested NATO assistance in bolstering its air defences after revealing that a Russian military drone that flew into the Baltic state last week was carrying explosives.

Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that the incident was one of several similar recent ones, calling them "an alarming sign of the spillover of Russia's aggression against Ukraine onto NATO territory".

Budrys said he had written to NATO chief Mark Rutte to ask for "immediate measures to enhance air defence capabilities in Lithuania", including with air patrols from the country's NATO allies.

Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said that the country was forming mobile groups to respond to drone threats as well as deploying "an air defence unit equipped with short-range weapons".

The dron

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