NATO scrambled fighter jets overnight after at least four drones strayed into the airspace of the Baltic states during Ukrainian strikes on Russia, officials said on Wednesday, triggering brief alerts telling citizens in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to seek shelter.
Lithuania’s prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, described it as “a difficult night”. One of the warnings covered Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-most populous city and home to about 300,000 people. Two attempts were made to shoot down a drone over northern Lithuania, but both failed, and it later crossed into neighbouring Latvia’s airspace, the Lithuanian armed forces’ chief of defence staff, Giedrius Premeneckas, told a news conference. Debris from a missile fired by a NATO fighter jet was later found near Birzai. Vilnius airport and its surrounding airspace were shut during the alert but reopened once it was lifted.
The incidents came on a night when Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s north-west, setting fire to part of the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga and injuring three workers, the regional governor said. About 150 drones were shot down over the Leningrad region, according to the governor, and a power station was knocked offline. Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, imposed temporary airspace and maritime restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Finland as a precaution, and withdrew them later.
The origin of the drones that strayed into Baltic airspace has not been confirmed. Moscow has accused Kyiv of using NATO airspace as cover for its attacks, while Kyiv says Russian signal jamming sometimes sends some of its drones off course. “We can only assume some of the drones involved in the attack against Russia were diverted by electronic warfare measures, but there is no confirmed information as to whether the drone was Ukrainian or Russian,” Premeneckas said. Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of Finland and the Baltic states several times this year, fuelling concern that the war in Ukraine is spilling into NATO countries bordering Russia and its ally Belarus.
The turmoil comes against the backdrop of a two-day meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi, as the United States makes a new push to end the war. Overnight, a Russian air strike knocked out power in parts of the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih and injured people in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials and emergency services said. No injuries were reported in the Baltic states.
Sources: Reuters, “Baltic nations, Finland issue overnight drone warnings as Russia, Ukraine exchange strikes” (https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/4005104-baltic-nations-finland-issue-overnight-drone-warnings-as-russia-ukraine-exchange-strikes); Daily Baltic, “Drones trigger two air alerts in Lithuania as Latvia, Estonia warned” (https://www.dailybaltic.com/44307/drones-trigger-two-air-alerts-in-lithuania-as-latvia-estonia-warned/). Note: the origin of the drones is unconfirmed and the reports could not be independently verified at publication.
