Lithuanian president hopes for ‘miracle’ to find missing US soldiers

Lithuania’s president said on Friday that he hoped for “a miracle” as he visited the site where a rescue operation was under way to recover the submerged vehicle of four missing US soldiers.

Authorities from the Baltic state received a report on Tuesday about the soldiers’ disappearance during a military drill on a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.

Search and rescue teams were at the scene on Friday, using heavy military equipment and excavators to remove silt from the body of water where the vehicle had been located.

“I am still hoping for a miracle,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told reporters in Pabrade.

“Although many sceptics would probably say that there is nothing to hope for in these circumstances, I want to believe,” he added.

Local and foreign troops, along with helicopters from the air force and the state border guard service, have been deployed in the search effort.

The M88 Hercules armoured recovery vehicle the missing US soldiers had been operating was found several metres deep in a swamp connected to a nearby lake.

“The challenges presented by the water, thick mud and soft ground around the site have complicated recovery efforts,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement on Thursday.

The main goal was to remove the mud from the submerged vehicle and identify possible attachment points for extraction, Lithuanian Armed Forces chief General Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.

“We are working and will continue to work until we can give clear and honest answers to those who need to know the most — family members,” Vaiksnoras said on Facebook on Friday.

Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.