The airport in Lithuanian capital Vilnius was closed and an air raid warning was issued09:06, 20 May 2026Updated 09:33, 20 May 2026NATO fighter jets are chasing a drone flying over Lithuania and the capital's airport has been shut amid fears of drone incursions.‌Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Sakaliene said the drone flew to Lentvaris, near the capital Vilnius, and is now heading in a different direction.‌The country has issued an "air danger" warning, suspending ‌traffic at Vilnius International Airport and asking people to take shelter.‌"Immediately take shelter in a safe place, take care of your close ones, await new recommendations," Lithuania's army ⁠said in a message sent to people in Vilnius on Wednesday.A warning was also issued in the Vilnius parliament building. "Due to the risk of air attack, we ask all persons in the building to go to the nearest shelter," ⁠an announcement on parliament's intercom read.Lithuania's national crisis management centre earlier said it had issued an alert in response to a drone in neighbouring Belarus that was ⁠seen flying towards Lithuania.‌The chaos came as Russia and Belarus' armed forces took part in nuclear weapons drills in Belarus, which are set to run until Thursday. Russia said on Wednesday that it has brought its nuclear weapons units and formations "to the highest levels of combat readiness" in military drills.The Belarusian Defence Ministry announced on Monday that it was carrying out nuclear weapons drills together with Russia "to improve the readiness of the armed forces to use modern means of destruction, including special ammunition".On Tuesday, a NATO fighter jet shot down ⁠a suspected Ukrainian drone violating Estonian airspace.‌The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday: "Combat training missions are underway to obtain special munitions for the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system, equip launch vehicles with them, and covertly advance to a designated position area in preparation for missile launches."During the manoeuvres, soldiers delivered nuclear munitions to field storage sites. Furthermore, joint training and use of nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus are being practiced.:Prominent Kremlin politicians have warned NATO of a nuclear threat in the Baltic region, where three small states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - all border Russia.‌Propagandist Konstantin Malofeev said Russia’s "new nuclear doctrine was not adopted just for the sake of it".He said: "Now it allows for a retaliatory strike against the launch areas of enemy weapons. We believe that the [current nuclear] exercises are not a ‘last warning’, but a preparation for a real final strike with several of the more than 4,000 Russian warheads. Otherwise, there's no point in them at all."Russia has repeatedly - but falsely - accused the Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for drones targeting Putin’s Leningrad region near St Petersburg.‌Leonid Slutsky, leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, said: "The de facto tacit provision of airspace for drone flights by neo-Nazis to carry out terrorist attacks against Russian civilians is fraught with the most serious consequences for these countries."He added: "In the event of a NATO attack on Kaliningrad, Putin would unleash his Armageddon weapons. Russia’s military and nuclear doctrines will inevitably come into play."Latvian MEP Rihards Kols said: "Moscow always accuses others of exactly what it intends to do itself. The Kremlin is preparing the information space.‌"The goal is transparent: Russian intelligence will inevitably attempt to slip drones through the Baltic skies or stage a border incident."They already have a ready-made scenario to accuse Kyiv and implicate Riga as an accomplice."Lithuania's Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said on X: "Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace while waging smear campaigns against Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.‌"It’s a transparent act of desperation – an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: Ukraine is hitting Russian military machine hard."He insisted "every inch" of NATO territory would be defended in the event of Russian action.War monitoring channel Volya has warned that Vladimir Putin is plotting a limited invasion of territory in the Baltic states in a major test to NATO.Article continues below"Since mid-March, we have begun receiving confirmations from sources in the Russian Ministry of Defence and other structures that Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade the Baltic states have moved to the next stage," it said.The aim "is not to start a war with NATO, but to trigger a major crisis within the alliance by invading Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and, ideally, bring about its effective fragmentation", the channel said.