Two drones at Adutiškis and Šiulgiai, October 9-11, 2026

VSAT border guards took control of two cigarette-carrying drones from Belarus on Friday and Saturday nights, October 9 and 10, 2026, one near Adutiškis in Švenčionys District and one near Šiulgiai in Vilnius District. VSAT says strong wind made the first drone's course hard to read. AirVeto's model has the 80 m wind at 49 km/h at 22:00 that Friday, more than double the 23 km/h at 22:00 the next night.

VSAT said the two landings bring its 2026 total to 63 drones, more than all of 2025. The service landed 59 in 2025 and 54 in 2024.

The first drone came in on Friday night in strong wind and darkness

Officers from the Adutiškis Border Post, part of VSAT's Varėna Border District, were patrolling the border strip near Adutiškis town on Friday night. They heard a sound typical of a drone from the Belarusian side, VSAT said. Strong wind and darkness made it hard to tell which way the drone was flying.

The officers switched on anti-drone equipment and searched the likely fall area with a service dog and a service drone. They checked the surroundings of Adutiškis and Ramoniūnai, two settlements about 2.5 km apart by AirVeto's measurement, and a second patrol blocked the area.

A box turned up 400 meters from the border, and the drone 300 meters beyond it

After dawn, a dog handler resumed the search. He soon found a box wrapped in transparent polyethylene film with a plastic loop attached, 400 meters from the state border. The homemade drone lay 300 meters farther on, with a second box fixed to it.

Together the boxes held 1,000 packs of Minsk City MS cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps, worth 5,510 euros with every Lithuanian tax. The Adutiškis post opened an administrative case over the acquisition and transport of excise goods, and holds the drone and cigarettes as ownerless property.

A second drone fell in woodland near Šiulgiai on Saturday night

VSAT officers from the Kena Border Post, part of the Vilnius Border District, took control of a second drone that flew in from Belarus with cargo on Saturday night. It came down in wooded terrain near Šiulgiai village in Vilnius District, and the guards found it about 500 meters from the state border.

A bundle on the homemade drone held 250 packs of NZ Gold cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps. The Kena post opened its own administrative case and holds the drone and cigarettes. The post's earlier catch in AirVeto's archive is the Kenas drone of July 17, found by a dog handler the next morning near Šumskų village.

VSAT's count passed all of 2025 with 80 days of the year left

VSAT's 63 drones on October 12 are four more than the 59 it landed in the whole of 2025. The service reached its 60th drone at Tausiūnai on September 27, 15 days before this release, so three came after it, about six a month.

That is half the roughly 12 a month VSAT averaged from its 35th drone on July 26 to its 60th on September 27. Eighty days of the year remain after VSAT's October 12 release.

Wind over Adutiškis blew from the southwest at 49 km/h at 80 m on Friday night

At 20:00 local time on Friday, the start of AirVeto's window, the wind at 500 m blew from the SW at 69 km/h. At 2,000 m it came from the W at 117 km/h. At 3,000 m it came from the W at 110 km/h.

Closer to the ground on Friday night, the wind at 80 m blew from the SW at 49 km/h at 22:00 local time and from the WSW at 49 km/h at midnight. VSAT gives no hour for either drone, so these hours are AirVeto's picks, and both nights use the Adutiškis model point. On Saturday night it was lighter. At 22:00 the 80 m wind came from the SSW at 23 km/h, and at midnight from the SSW at 20 km/h.

This reconstruction is based on VSAT's press release of October 12, 2026, and AirVeto's wind-model data for the event window. The model's construction and limits are on the methodology page.

---

AirVeto collects Lithuania's drone and contraband incidents at Dronai Lietuvoje (in Lithuanian). The full archive is at the incident archive.