Four US soldiers, whose identities remain unknown, were reported missing on Tuesday after a training exercise in the vicinity of Pabradė, Lithuania. In response, a large-scale search operation was launched by the US Army and local authorities, initially reported by Lithuanian media.
The soldiers were traveling in an M88 recovery vehicle, one of the largest tank transporters of the US military. Initial reports suggest that the vehicle may have fallen into a body of water. The Lithuanian military announced on Wednesday that they had identified a “possible location” of the missing soldiers and their vehicle. The training area is less than 10 kilometers from the border with Belarus.
The recovery vehicle was reportedly released to retrieve another heavy vehicle, according to a US official, cited by The New York Times. The soldiers may have strayed from the road and driven into a swamp, with the M88 ultimately sinking, the official said, with the occupants seemingly trapped inside the vehicle.
The official death toll was not publicly confirmed until after a statement by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who announced the news during a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday afternoon. “As I was speaking, the news came in of four American soldiers who died in Lithuania” Rutte told reporters, adding that he had no further details.
The US soldiers were participating in a tactical training program on the training grounds, with the Lithuanian authorities citing the increasing tensions between the Baltic states and Russia as a reason for additional training. The missing soldiers were part of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, with no official details provided on how the soldiers or their vehicle went missing or the circumstances of their deaths.