Crews dig for soldiers' submerged vehicle in Lithuania

PHOTO CAPTION: Digger and soldiers at scene of rescue operation at Pabrade training ground, March 26, 2025. LITHUANIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY/Handout via REUTERS

By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) -     Rescuers in Lithuania were digging on Thursday into a peat bog in a military training area to recover the vehicle of four U.S. soldiers missing for two days. 

The soldiers in the M88 Hercules armoured recovery vehicle were on an exercise at the Pabrade training ground near the Belarus border where U.S. units have been rotating since 2019.

Their vehicle was located on Wednesday at more than 5 metres down and enough water had now been drained from the swamp to begin digging for it, Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene told reporters on Thursday morning after surveying the site.

Hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. soldiers with dozens of vehicles were working at the site and surveying nearby woodland in hope of finding the soldiers.  "To us, their soldiers are like our soldiers," said army head Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.

U.S. ambassador Kara McDonald thanked Lithuania for the help, calling it a model ally. "As our secretary of defence said, we will not rest until our troops are found", she added at the site, saying recovery of the vehicle was difficult.

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Kestutis Budrys told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington earlier this week that his country was ready to host more U.S. troops.

 (Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)