NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday said that four US soldiers who went missing in Lithuania have died. Rutte, who is on a trip to Warsaw, said that his thoughts were with their families and with the United States. “The news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania. This is still early news, so we do not know the details. This is really terrible news, and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones," Rutte told reporters in Warsaw.
Here's what the US military said
Earlier, the US military said that the US Army soldiers had gone missing at a training area outside of Lithuania's capital. According to a statement from US Army Europe and Africa public affairs in Wiesbaden, Germany, the soldiers were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time.
Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that four US soldiers and a vehicle were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Zukauskas training ground in Pabrade, a town located less than 10 kilometres from the border with Belarus.
What would have happened to US soldiers?
According to The New York Times, the soldiers were in a military-issue M88 recovery vehicle when they went missing. They were reportedly driving through the training area to retrieve another heavy vehicle, and they might have driven off the road into a swamp. According to an official, they are feared to have been trapped inside when the truck submerged, the Independent reports.
The Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are all NATO members and have often had chilly ties with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.
Relations soured further over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces.
(With inputs from AP)