Minsk viewed the incident involving the UAV that crashed inside the city of Grodno on November 30 as a provocation carried out by the Lithuanian side.
"Analysis of the wreckage, including video footage and navigation data stored on flash drives, shows that the route of the Western European-made unmanned aerial vehicle was intended to fly over Belarusian territory, fly to Poland, and return along the same route to its launch point in Lithuania," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus stated in a declaration.
Belarusian officials stressed that "such actions pose a threat to the security of the Republic of Belarus and constitute a direct violation of international law, including the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation." Minsk assessed the actions themselves as "a deliberate provocation not only against the Republic of Belarus but also against the Republic of Poland."
In response to the incident, the Belarusian side demanded that Lithuania "immediately provide detailed and comprehensive information about the circumstances of this incident, including the purpose of the launch and the operator of the aircraft," conduct an investigation, bring the perpetrators to justice, and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future, reported by kommersant.ru
