The U.S. soldiers had been at the center of a recovery mission in Lithuania for nearly a week after their armored vehicle sank near the country's border with Belarus.

The soldiers had been missing since Tuesday afternoon and were members of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

NATO walked back its claim that the four United States soldiers missing in Lithuania had died. On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that four U.S. soldiers who had gone missing during a training exercise in Lithuania had died.