VILNIUS, September 28. /TASS/. NATO’s AWACS surveillance planes have arrived in Lithuania and are ready for missions, the command of the Lithuanian armed forces said in a statement.

"Deployed for the first time at Lithuania's Zokniai air base, AWACS reconnaissance aircraft will begin their missions on Thursday," the statement said.

During the deployment that will last several weeks, the airborne early warning and control system planes will perform flights out of the Lithuanian air base over North Atlantic alliance member countries. They arrived from Turkey where they were on a similar mission.

The number of reconnaissance planes at the Zokniai air base has not been reported, but they are referred to in the plural. About 150 military personnel were deployed to the air base to support the aircraft.

NATO said earlier that it would deploy two AWACS aircraft to Lithuania to monitor Russia's military activities near NATO's borders. According to the bloc, the aircraft belong to a fleet of 14 NATO-owned surveillance aircraft based in Geilenkirchen, Germany.