NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced on Wednesday that four U.S. soldiers who went missing during training exercises in Lithuania have died, although he did not have specific details regarding the incident.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the soldiers were involved in a training accident but refrained from providing further information about their status.
During a visit to Warsaw, Rutte expressed his condolences, stating that he had been informed of the soldiers’ deaths and extended his thoughts to their families and to the United States.
“This is preliminary information, and we are still unaware of the specifics. This is truly tragic news, and our sympathies are with the families and loved ones,” Rutte remarked to reporters in Warsaw.
A statement from the U.S. Army Europe and Africa public affairs office in Wiesbaden, Germany, indicated that the soldiers were engaged in scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident.
According to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, the four U.S. soldiers and their vehicle were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, which is situated less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Belarus border.
The Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are NATO members and have historically maintained tense relations with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.
Tensions escalated further following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda emerging as a prominent advocate for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
