By Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans
VILNIUS/RIGA, May 19 (Reuters) – A NATO military jet shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia on Tuesday, the Baltic country said, the latest in a series of airspace violations in the region amid frequent Ukrainian attacks on neighbouring Russia.
Nearby Latvia also issued an air threat alert after a drone entered Latvian airspace on Tuesday, telling residents near the Russian border to stay indoors, with NATO Baltic Air Police jets summoned to the area.
Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including around the Baltic. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of NATO members Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which all border Russia.
The Latvian government last week resigned over its handling of the incursions.
DRONE SHOT DOWN WITH A MISSILE
In Estonia, the drone entered the country’s air space at around noon local time (0900 GMT) on Tuesday, coming from Russia and into the southeastern part of the country, the Estonian military said in a statement.
It was shot down by a Romanian NATO fighter jet on a training flight at 12:14 local time (0914 GMT), with a single missile.
“The incident occurred under the conditions of heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia,” the Estonian military added.
The drone had been under surveillance before it entered Estonia, it added, with the decision to shoot it down taken to “minimise the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure”.
NATO confirmed a Romanian jet had shot down a drone over Estonian airspace and said an investigation was ongoing. It said NATO “is ready and able to react to any potential air threats”.
CANCELLED TRAINS, EXAMS
In Latvia, the air alert led to some scenes of panic in the border region with Russia, with trains suspended, national exams for ninth-grade school students stopped and grocery shops closing down, according to local media reports.
It was not immediately clear whether the drone that entered Latvia was the same as the one that entered Estonia or whether there were two different drones.
Both Baltic nations blamed the incursions on Moscow, and said Ukraine has the right to strike Russian military targets to weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war.
“These incidents are the direct result of Russia’s war and provocations. Estonia is strengthening cooperation with Ukraine to enhance our air defence and counter-drone capabilities,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a post on X.
Both countries stressed they had not allowed Ukraine to strike Russia from their territories.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Ukraine would send experts to Latvia to help protect the country’s skies.
Finnish authorities on May 15 warned of suspected drone activity in the country’s capital region, telling people to stay indoors and suspending traffic at Helsinki’s airport for three hours.
The Finnish defence forces had scrambled fighter jets and other emergency services, but no drones were eventually found.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Janis Laizans in Riga and Essi Lehto in Helsinki, additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels and Niklas Pollard in Stockholm; Writing by Anna Ringstrom and Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Peter Graff and Sharon Singleton)
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