US military: three soldiers in Lithuania dead

After recovering a tank sunk in the mud, the US military confirmed the death of three out of four missing US soldiers in Lithuania. The fate of the fourth soldier initially remained unclear. The search for the military training area in Pabrade on the NATO-East flank near the border with Belarus, said the European command center of the US Army in Wiesbaden.

The US State Department in Washington expressed dismayed about the death of the three soldiers, expressed their ownership and thanked the emergency services for the days of search.

The US Army and the Lithuanian authorities have initiated investigations into the cause of the accident. Lithuania’s Minister of Defense Dovile Sakaliene spoke of a « painful loss » and a « very sad day for all of Lithuania ».

She wrote on the X platform: « We can assure you that we will not rest until we have found the last missing soldier. » President Gitanas Nauseda and Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys also expressed their sympathy and expressed their condolences to the members of the soldiers.

Soldiers have been missing for almost a week

The four US soldiers have been missing since last Tuesday. They belonged to an infantry brigade and were no longer found after an exercise in which, according to US information, they carried out a planned tactical training. The Lithuanian military and the police then started a search with the US military for the troops who were traveling with an M88 Hercules mountain armor.

Hundreds of soldiers and rescue workers took part in the operation. This ultimately led to the location of the vehicle in a water in the exercise area, which is crossed by dense forests and swampy terrain.

It was only after day -long efforts that the rescue workers managed to recover the tons of heavy military vehicle with the help of special equipment on Monday night. In order to get the tank, which is almost five meters deep and below the waterline, they had to dry the swampy area at the point.

Since 2014, the United States has been relocating units for maneuvers in Lithuania and the NATO east border in the rotation process. According to Lithuania, a US battalion is currently stationed in a Pabrade.