5 June 2026

Parliament’s National Security and Defence Committee on Friday backed a plan to send up to 40 Lithuanian soldiers and civilian defence staff to international maritime security missions in the Strait of Hormuz. The deployment still needs approval from the full Seimas.

Lithuania’s Social Democratic leadership met in Vilnius today before a Saturday council session that will weigh three coalition scenarios, including a possible split with Nemuno ausra. Party insiders are also discussing a new majority with the Democrats for Lithuania, while the future of Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys remains unresolved. Conservative leader Laurynas Kasciunas said more detail on the future of US troop presence in Lithuania should emerge later this month. Aušrinė Armonaitė said the governing camp was fuelling domestic confrontation through this week’s row over constitutional changes and allowing nuclear-armed ships into Klaipeda port. Separate proposed amendments have also drawn criticism for making self-government and transparency harder to reconcile.

The Interior Ministry has completed an internal probe into unauthorised access to systems used by its agencies and found that about 50 accounts were compromised from abroad. The access went through Migration Department staff accounts, and copied data came from the State Enterprise Centre of Registers; the ministry is now preparing extra security audits and continuity measures after a breach that ran from early this year until April. In Alytus, five people were arrested on suspicion of distributing drugs to minors.

Lithuania posted the European Union’s largest quarter-on-quarter employment growth. The government also announced 422 million euros in support for housing renovation and social housing. The armed forces’ Vanguard 26 exercise is testing systems to detect and destroy drones and aerial balloons. In Vilnius, five Lithuanian restaurants were awarded Michelin stars today, while four of last year’s star holders retained theirs.

The prime minister asked the interior minister to explain reports that about 50 Interior Ministry employee accounts may have been compromised. A late storm swept across Lithuania, with a tornado reported in Antanavas and roof damage in the Kaunas area.

Ukraine’s general staff said today that Russian forces lost 1,550 soldiers in the previous 24 hours, pushing Moscow’s cumulative losses in the war above 1.1 million. Kyiv also reported renewed Russian strikes on settlements and energy infrastructure the same day. A Russian strike near Kyiv killed four people. In Kherson today, a Russian drone hit a car in the city centre, killing one man and wounding another.

Russian strikes in Ukraine also hit a children’s food factory. Over the past 48 hours, Ukrainian officials also recorded at least three deaths in separate Russian attacks across different regions. The backdrop remains Russia’s major May 24 barrage, when it launched 600 drones and 90 missiles at Ukraine and linked the attack to retaliation for strikes on occupied eastern Ukrainian territory.

Over the Baltic Sea, six Russian military aircraft were intercepted in one day, including reconnaissance and transport planes. French and Swedish fighters scrambled from Šiauliai Air Base, and some of the Russian aircraft were flying without flight plans or radio contact. France said its Baltic detachment had scrambled 11 times in the previous week. Latvian army chief Kaspars Pudāns warned yesterday that Russia’s edge in drone warfare could open a two-year window for an attack on the Baltics.

Latvia’s security services said yesterday that Moscow was intensifying a legal and information campaign against the Baltic states after repeated drone alerts in Latvia in May. Estonia in the past day confirmed plans for a new military base near Narva. NATO also deployed forces to Daugavpils for the first time.

Russia intensified its bombardment of Kyiv, and some metro stations ran out of space for people sheltering from air strikes. Vladimir Putin ruled out a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the near term and set his own conditions, while the Ukrainian president said the decision meant choosing war. Ukrainian forces struck a Russian base in Pokrovske and said they had destroyed it.

Israel’s military said on Thursday it killed four Hamas members in southern Gaza during an operation it described as a response to an armed threat. The next immediate test is whether the army names the dead and whether Gaza health authorities publish a separate casualty count. Iran’s military also said it fired warning rockets at US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman. In Lebanon, seven people were killed in an Israeli attack on Tyre.

In Ukraine, a Russian strike destroyed a children’s food factory and killed seven people in the same attack. Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday proposed direct talks with Vladimir Putin in a public letter, saying the Russian leader had spent nearly half his 26 years in power fighting Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the past day criticised efforts to decide Ukraine’s fate without Moscow. The US House of Representatives passed a bill in the past day combining aid for Ukraine with new sanctions on Russia.

The US is scaling back its NATO posture in the Baltic region, with half as many cruisers, a third fewer fighters and no reconnaissance drones in the current plan. That leaves NATO relying more on non-US platforms and on local air-defence upgrades in the Baltic states. AP reported that Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week for his first visit since 2019. Beijing is using the trip to show it still matters in Pyongyang as Kim Jong Un deepens ties with Moscow and keeps nuclear forces in focus after months of missile tests.

CNN and other US outlets reported that during the conflict with Iran, the United States came close to losing its most advanced aircraft carrier. Wall Street closed with a sharp sell-off in technology stocks, pushing the Nasdaq markedly lower.