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A drone was spotted on Thursday in a no-fly zone in Miklusenai, Alytus district, near a Litgrid facility. Restricted area EYD13 was active that day from 0500 to 2359, and authorities have not publicly identified who operated the aircraft or why it was there.
Lithuania's military on Friday denied reports that Russian military aircraft had entered Lithuanian airspace. Two Italian Eurofighter F-2000 jets were scrambled from Siauliai on Thursday evening under a standard NATO air-policing procedure after radar detected aircraft flying without transponders on a route between Kaliningrad and international airspace. Lithuania has also updated its civilian evacuation plan, with one route from Vilnius directed toward Poland in the event of an extreme military threat. Vilnius civil defence official Zygimantas Solovjovas said residents would be warned in advance and should not expect to leave once shelling has already begun.
Seimas speaker Juozas Olekas has proposed raising the retirement age for judges from 65 to 70 for five years. He says the change would keep experienced judges on the bench and ease case delays caused by staffing shortages. A dispute over gambling and lottery taxes has become a test of trust inside the ruling coalition after Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said the Finance Ministry's plan to cut the lottery tax was never cleared with him and has no future.
In Wuhan on Friday, Lithuania's U23 3x3 team finished the World Championship group stage unbeaten. The team of Nojus Vaivada, Kajus Leliukas, Rokas Jocys and Paulius Velutis beat the United States 21-14 and Argentina 21-12, won Group D and will face New Zealand in Saturday's quarter-final at 9:35 a.m.
The IAEA said a drone hit the cooling tower of a Russian nuclear power plant, but no fire broke out. Germany's ambassador said Berlin's commitment to develop a brigade in Lithuania is firm and unchanged.
sources: 15min.lt, lrytas.lt, delfi.lt, tv3.lt, lrt.lt, vz.lt
A no-fly zone is a defined part of airspace where flights are banned or tightly restricted for safety, infrastructure protection or special operations. These restrictions are published in aviation notices with specific times and coordinates.
On Sept. 18, Lithuania's military said two Italian Eurofighter jets were scrambled from Siauliai on Thursday evening as part of a routine NATO air-policing response, not because Russian aircraft crossed Lithuanian airspace. The jets were launched after radar picked up aircraft flying without transponders on a Kaliningrad and international airspace route, the military said. The mission was coordinated through NATO's Joint Air Operations Centre in Germany. The statement directly contradicted Italian media reports that Russian military planes had violated Lithuanian airspace. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
Lithuanian air-defence officials need to distinguish a real violation from a routine interception fast, because that drives alerts, public messaging and NATO coordination. Accurate identification of flights from the Kaliningrad direction also limits the chance that false reports trigger needless political or military escalation. (lrt.lt)
Who benefits
The Lithuanian military and NATO air-policing mission gain credibility from the clarification, while Italian media outlets and anyone spreading the false version lose ground. (lrt.lt)
What's next
The Lithuanian military and NATO's Joint Air Operations Centre in Germany will keep refining the radar picture and the air-policing record to close out the episode. (lrt.lt)
A drone was seen flying in a no-fly zone in Miklusėnai, Alytus district, on Sept. 17, near a Litgrid site. Aviation notices for the same day show restricted area EYD13 Alytus active from 0500 to 2359. The sighting came days after Lithuania lodged a protest with Belarus over a separate airspace violation involving an unmanned aircraft. No public details have yet been given on who controlled the drone or why it was there.
Why it matters
For energy infrastructure operators and airspace safety services in the Alytus district, it means another security check around a strategic site. Each incursion raises the risk of flight restrictions and faster military-civilian coordination.
Lithuania’s U23 3x3 team swept the group stage in Wuhan and moved into the World Championship quarterfinals. The squad of Nojus Vaivada, Kajus Leliukas, Rokas Jocys and Paulius Velutis beat the United States 21-14 and Argentina 21-12 after earlier wins over South Korea and hosts China. Lithuania finished first in Group D and will face New Zealand in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 9.35 a.m. R. Jocys led the team with 7.8 points per game.
Why it matters
Lithuania’s youth 3x3 program now has a realistic shot at a place in the global top four. New Zealand is the first knockout hurdle, and the unbeaten run gives Lithuania a cleaner route into the semifinal bracket.
Lithuania has updated its mass-evacuation plan, with one route from Vilnius now pointing toward Poland in the event of a major military threat, Polish and regional outlets reported on Thursday. Officials say the sequence would depend on where the threat emerges and how large it is, and warnings would go out before any direct danger reaches the city. A Vilnius civil defence official said residents should not expect to leave once shelling has already started. The plan also ties Lithuania more closely to Podlaskie region in eastern Poland as a potential transit corridor for civilians. (polskieradio.pl)
Why it matters
For Vilnius residents, the plan means evacuation would follow pre-agreed routes instead of last-minute improvisation in a crisis. For Poland’s border regions, it means preparing to handle transit, crowd control and temporary shelter for civilians. (rbc.ru)
Seimas speaker Juozas Olekas wants to raise the retirement age for judges from 65 to 70, for a five-year period. Under his draft, a judge’s mandate would end at 70, unless a fixed term expires earlier. Olekas says the change would help keep experienced judges on the bench and ease staffing gaps that slow cases. He cites Constitutional Court case law as the legal basis for a blanket rule rather than one-off extensions.
Why it matters
For judges, the plan would mean longer careers and a better chance to stay on the bench past 65. For younger legal candidates, it would mean fewer openings in the near term.
On Sept. 17, Lithuania's cabinet and parliament ignited a fight over gambling and lottery taxes after the governing farmers' push to raise the rates ran into resistance and a Finance Ministry plan to cut the lottery tax was said to have been developed without Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius. Sinkevičius then said the ministry's lottery tax proposal had no future, while the ministry said the draft was still at an early stage and under discussion. The row has now shifted from tax design to political trust, with officials openly questioning who cleared what and with whom. The government says it will only back proposals that command support in the ruling majority. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
Lottery operators and gambling firms are facing two opposite risks at once: higher taxes from one camp and a lower levy tied to charity payments from another. For the state budget, any new revenue from this area still depends on coalition bargaining rather than settled policy. (lrt.lt)
A Russian drone strike in Fastiv district of Kyiv region wounded five people on Friday morning, including three children. Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said the children were hospitalised with blast-related ear injuries and shock.
Poland again scrambled jets during the strikes and temporarily halted flights at Lublin and Rzeszow airports. The European Union transferred 3.3 billion euros to Ukraine today under the Ukraine Support Loan for missiles, ammunition and drones. Brussels tied the tranche to its 28.3 billion euro defence allocation for Ukraine in 2026 and to a broader European air and missile defence push.
Russia opened three days of State Duma voting today, with the Kremlin casting the election as a public endorsement of the war in Ukraine. Putin called voting a civic duty, and residents of occupied Ukrainian territory are being folded into the process for the first time. Yabloko, the only anti-war party, was barred from the ballot in August, leaving no real anti-war choice.
Ukrainian prosecutors say Russia is now firing modified RM48U training missiles at Ukraine in large numbers instead of more accurate Iskander ballistic missiles. They said RM48Us made up more than half of 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles launched in July and early August. Greenpeace said yesterday that Russia is deliberately sabotaging power lines at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, days after the site was reconnected to the grid following an 18-day outage. A separate fight over AI safety sharpened this week after Anthropic said its models had been misused across seven harm areas, including surveillance, influence operations and weapons development, and one network in northern Yemen used AI-assisted work on guided rockets, a multi-stage ballistic missile and a hypersonic glide-vehicle variant.
Kyiv's mayor reported a Russian missile strike on the capital. Ukrainian forces also disrupted the operations of an elite Russian unit.
sources: tv3.lt, vz.lt, delfi.lt, 15min.lt, lrt.lt, lrytas.lt
The International Atomic Energy Agency is the UN nuclear watchdog responsible for safety, security and safeguards in civilian nuclear programmes. It monitors conditions at nuclear sites, including the Zaporizhzhia plant.
A Russian drone strike in Fastiv district of Kyiv region injured five people on Friday morning, including three children. Kyiv regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said all three children were taken to hospital with blast-related ear injuries and shock. Poland scrambled jets again as Russia struck Ukraine and temporarily halted flights at airports in Lublin and Rzeszow. One adult man was also hurt, with burns, shrapnel wounds and a leg laceration.
Why it matters
For civilians in Kyiv region, the strike shows that drones are still reaching communities beyond the capital and injuring children at home. Hospitals now have to absorb both paediatric and adult casualties while air defences are scrambled across the border in Poland.
Who benefits
Ukrainian air defences and border security gain warning time, while civilians in Kyiv region and local schools and hospitals bear the cost.
What's next
The next concrete step is updated reporting from Kyiv region officials and doctors on the condition of the injured and the scale of damage from the 2026-09-18 morning strike.
Greenpeace said on Sept. 17 that Russia is deliberately sabotaging power lines at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and blaming Kyiv for the damage. The warning came just days after the plant was reconnected to the grid following an 18-day outage that forced it onto emergency diesel generators. The IAEA said on Sept. 11 that the outage had depleted diesel reserves, raising the risk of a station blackout if external power failed again. The plant needs steady off-site electricity to run cooling systems for its reactors and spent fuel pools. (aljazeera.com)
Why it matters
Any fresh loss of off-site power would put the plant’s cooling systems back on diesel backup and increase the risk of a station blackout. The immediate exposure sits with civilians near Enerhodar and with the IAEA, which is trying to keep the site stable while war keeps knocking out its power links. (globalsecurity.org)
On September 18, 2026, Reuters reported that Russia has been firing modified training missiles, RM48Us, at Ukraine in large numbers instead of more accurate Iskander ballistic missiles. Ukrainian prosecutors said RM48Us made up more than half of 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles launched in July and early August. The missiles were first confirmed this summer as being used at scale from Russia’s S-400 air defence systems. Ukrainian intelligence says Moscow plans to more than double production this year, to 480 from 200 last year. (marketscreener.com)
Why it matters
For Ukraine, the shift means more pressure on already strained air defences, because Russia can save its better missiles for later while saturating the system with cheaper ones. Civilians and infrastructure face a higher risk of damage from less precise ballistic strikes. (marketscreener.com)
The European Union transferred €3.3 billion to Ukraine on Sept. 18 under the Ukraine Support Loan, with the money earmarked for missiles, ammunition and drones. Brussels has tied the tranche to its €28.3 billion defence allocation for Ukraine in 2026 and to a broader push for a European air and missile defence system. The payment follows last week’s approval of another €6.1 billion for Ukraine’s air defence, ammunition, drones and electronic warfare. Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said the money has already reached Kyiv.
Why it matters
For Ukraine’s military, the tranche means more stock for air defence and strike capabilities at a time when interceptors and shells remain scarce. For Europe’s defence industry, it means fresh orders, while the EU’s loan mechanism is being pushed further toward weapons purchases rather than straight budget support.
Anthropic said on Sept. 12 that its models had been misused across seven harm areas, including surveillance, influence operations and conventional weapons development. One case in northern Yemen involved AI-assisted work on guided rockets, a multi-stage ballistic missile and a hypersonic glide-vehicle variant, according to the company. The report landed as major AI executives pushed on Sept. 16 for a slower rollout of frontier models, exposing a split inside the industry. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has resisted the slowdown camp, turning safety into a live policy fight in Washington.
Why it matters
For intelligence agencies, propagandists and weapons developers, AI cuts the cost and time needed to operate. That raises the pressure on US and European regulators to limit access to the most powerful models, especially as they are already being used in war, surveillance and disinformation.
Russia is holding State Duma elections from Sept. 18 to 20, and the Kremlin is using them to stage support for the war in Ukraine. Putin has framed voting as a civic duty and as a contribution to Russia’s battlefield effort. The only anti-war party, Yabloko, was barred from the ballot in August, leaving no real opposition choice. Moscow is also opening voting points near the borders with Poland and the Baltic states and in occupied Ukrainian territory. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
For Russian voters, the ballot offers even less choice because the only anti-war party has been removed and the outcome is tightly controlled. In occupied Ukrainian regions, the vote is being used to entrench Moscow’s rule rather than to test political competition. (lrt.lt)
Iran said it struck an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, while Donald Trump said he is weighing whether to “destroy” Iran. Russia and China on Wednesday blocked a U.N. move to keep monitoring sanctions on Iran. Washington also cleared visas for senior Iranian officials to attend next week’s U.N. meetings in New York.
Russia has begun using modified RM48U training missiles in large-scale attacks on Ukraine, Reuters reported. Ukrainian authorities said 48N6 variants made up more than half of 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles launched in July and early August. Analyst Sidharth Kaushal said the tactic burns through Ukrainian interceptors and lets Moscow conserve precision weapons. Russian drones also struck Konotop in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight, killing two women born in 1965 and 1991. Mayor Artem Semenikhin said the attack damaged a kindergarten, School No. 11, medical facilities, rail infrastructure, transport links and private homes, and cut gas and power to part of the city.
Reuters, citing five Ukrainian and Western defence officials, said NATO weapons and tactics are ageing faster than the alliance can replace them. The report highlighted air and missile defence gaps, dependence on advanced U.S. systems and Ukraine’s use of drones and electronic warfare as a new benchmark. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also announced new talks with the United States.
In the South China Sea, Chinese coast guard vessel CCG-21585 rammed the Philippine fisheries boat BRP Datu Magat Salamat near Sabina Shoal. Philippine authorities said the 11:13 a.m. local time collision damaged railings and deck structures but caused no injuries. In Michigan, a Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed on a routine training mission, the pilot ejected safely and Grand Traverse County ordered evacuations. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, threatened a tougher response to U.S. drills, and a school shooting in the Philippines killed three young people and injured six others.
An explosion at a police complex in Pakistan killed 21 people. Donald Trump banned CNN, MSNBC and Politico from the White House and said he would sign a new Russia sanctions law later on Friday.
sources: lrt.lt, 15min.lt, tv3.lt, delfi.lt, lrytas.lt, vz.lt
The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. It is one of the world’s most important chokepoints for oil and gas shipping.
Reuters reported on September 18 that Russia has begun using modified RM48U training missiles in large-scale attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian prosecutors and military intelligence said the missiles, built to fly on a ballistic trajectory for air-defence training, were first seen in broad combat use this summer, when 48N6 variants accounted for more than half of 228 ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired in July and early August. Analysts say the tactic helps Moscow burn through Ukrainian interceptors while preserving precision munitions for lower-value targets. The report said the campaign has pushed Russian air strikes to record levels in recent months.
Why it matters
Ukraine’s air defences face more strain on already limited interceptor stocks. That makes it harder to shield power grids, rail links and other high-value targets when Russia can fire cheaper substitute missiles in volume.
Who benefits
Russia’s military and missile stocks gain, while Ukrainian air-defence units and civilian infrastructure bear the cost.
What's next
The next checkpoint is new data from Ukraine’s prosecutor general and military intelligence on the September 18 strike and any follow-up attacks, which will show whether RM48U missiles have become a standing part of Russia’s arsenal.
A Chinese coast guard vessel rammed a Philippine fisheries bureau boat near Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea on Sept. 18, the Philippine side said. The BRP Datu Magat Salamat was on a fuel-delivery run for local fishermen off Palawan when the collision happened at 11:13 a.m. local time, damaging railings and deck structures but causing no injuries. Beijing said the Philippine vessel ignored warnings and cut across the Chinese ship's bow. The clash comes in disputed waters where China claims most of the sea despite a 2016 arbitration ruling that rejected those claims. (archyvai.lrt.lt)
Why it matters
Philippine fishermen depend on these patrols and fuel runs to keep operating near Palawan. Each collision raises the risk for the coast guard and fisheries staff tasked with sustaining Manila's presence in waters Beijing continues to contest. (archyvai.lrt.lt)
Russian drones hit Konotop in Sumy region overnight on September 18, damaging a kindergarten, School No. 11, medical facilities, rail infrastructure, transport links and private homes, according to mayor Artem Semenikhin. The city also reported damage to the gas transmission network, which left part of Konotop without gas, while power lines were hit in several places. Semenikhin said many small private businesses were damaged as well. Two women, born in 1965 and 1991, were killed in the attack. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
For Konotop residents, the strike means more than damaged buildings: part of the city lost gas supply and electricity became unstable. With schools, clinics and rail links hit, the immediate burden is on local authorities to restore basic services and keep the city functioning. (lrt.lt)
A Texas Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet crashed on a routine training mission near Traverse City, Michigan, on Thursday. The pilot ejected safely, and the unit said the incident is under investigation. Grand Traverse County emergency managers issued an evacuation order after the crash. Senator Gary Peters said he was monitoring the situation as more details were gathered. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
The evacuation order affected residents near the crash site in Grand Traverse County, where authorities had to secure the area and assess possible debris risks. The military now has to determine whether the crash was caused by a technical failure or another problem during training. (lrt.lt)
Reuters says five Ukrainian and Western defence officials see NATO weapons and tactics ageing fast as the war moves faster than alliance procurement cycles. The report also flags a harder problem: air and missile defence, where NATO still leans on sophisticated US systems. Ukraine’s battlefield use of drones and electronic warfare is now seen as a benchmark, not a side show. The Pentagon is reviewing its force posture in Europe as allies rush to spend more on defence.
Why it matters
Ukraine’s battlefield experience is becoming a live reference point for NATO armies that need cheaper ways to stop drones and missiles. For European capitals, that means faster spending on air defence and a reset in training and procurement priorities.
President Donald Trump said on Sept. 18 he faces a major decision on the war with Iran and is weighing whether to destroy the country, LRT reported. The remark comes as Russia and China blocked a U.N. move on Sept. 17 to keep monitoring sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work. Washington also cleared visas for top Iranian officials to attend next week's U.N. meetings in New York, even as the two sides remain at war. The immediate question is whether Trump escalates the military campaign or leaves room for talks at the U.N. session. (lrt.lt)
Why it matters
Iran's oil exports, the sanctions regime and the U.N. track all feed straight into fuel prices and security in the Gulf. If Washington escalates, the pressure hits not just Tehran but shipping routes tied to the Strait of Hormuz and wider regional trade. (apnews.com)