The United States Army has said an armoured vehicle used by four of its soldiers that went missing in Lithuania has been found submerged in a body of water as search efforts for the missing troops continue.
In a statement on Wednesday, the army said, “The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing US Soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania.”
The army’s comments come after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, that the four soldiers had died in an “incident”.
“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 said.
NATO’s spokesperson Allison Hart later clarified Rutte’s comments, saying the search for the four was ongoing and apologised for the confusion caused.
“The search is ongoing,” Hart said in a statement posted on X.
“We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown,” Hart said.
On the 4 US soldiers missing in a military exercise in Lithuania, the search is ongoing. We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown
— NATO Spokesperson (@NATOpress) March 26, 2025
Lithuania’s military also said that a search was under way for the four US soldiers and a tracked vehicle that had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon.
The military wrote on X later that it was continuing an “intensive” rescue operation without confirming the deaths of the US personnel.
According to a statement by the US army, the soldiers had been training near Pabrade in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus.
“The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident,” the army’s statement read.
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 after 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.
