Four U.S. soldiers died during a scheduled tactical training exercise in Lithuania near the Belarusian border, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed on Wednesday.
The soldiers were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during drills at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, less than 10 kilometers from Belarus. Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT first reported the disappearance.
“This is terrible news. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones,” Rutte said during a visit to Warsaw, noting that details of the incident were still emerging.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the soldiers were involved in a training accident but declined to provide further information.
U.S. Army Europe and Africa, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, stated that the exercise was part of routine operations. The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Baltic region, where NATO members Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia remain on high alert due to ongoing security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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