And on that note, that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa.
We will be back with our live coverage of Europe tomorrow morning, starting with the summit on “the coalition of the willing” for Ukraine in Paris.
But for now, bonne soirée!
Missing US soldiers 'killed in an incident' in Lithuania, Nato's Rutte confirms
On earlier reports about four US troops and a vehicle missing in Lithuania (15:18), Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte told reporters that they were confirmed as dead.
Starting his news briefing after delivering a speech at the Warsaw School of Economics, he said:
Whilst I was speaking, the news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania.
That’s still early news, so we do not know the details, but obviously this is really terrible news, and our thoughts are with families and loved ones.
I sent a message to the American secretary of defence Pete Hegseth that, of course, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and with the United States.
Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT said the four servicemen “may have been killed,” but “this has not been officially confirmed,” while other Lithuanian outlets – TV3 and Lrytas – unofficially reported their deaths.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda was quoted by TV3 as saying that he was being kept up to date, but refusing to elaborate as “the circumstances are being clarified”.
LRT also reported that Lithuanian defence minister Dovilė Šakalienė was on the way to the training base.
A statement from the US army’s Europe and Africa public affairs office in Wiesbaden, Germany, said earlier that the soldiers were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time.
“A possible scene has now been identified, and a search and rescue operation is underway,” the Lithuanian military said in a statement.
