
Eastern Europe is on alert for drone attacks. Latvia is the first country to raise the alarm about the risk of air strikes.
According to the National Armed Forces, an orange alert was issued for the Ludza region at around 23:20 on Tuesday, while approximately 20 minutes later, an airspace alert was also issued for the Augsdaugava and Kraslava municipalities. As reported by bb.lv, a similar airspace alert was issued shortly before in Lithuania.
The Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center announced that the decision had been made to deploy NATO fighter jets for air defense missions.
At around 12:20 a.m., the alert level in all three regions was lowered to yellow, and at 12:40 a.m. the alert was lifted.
As a result, NATO scrambled fighter jets after at least four drones entered the airspace of the Baltic states during Ukraine's attacks on Russia, prompting brief warnings for citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to seek refuge.
Ukrainian military drones that have entered the airspace of Finland and the Baltic states this year have fueled concerns that the war in Ukraine is spreading to NATO countries that border Russia and its ally, Belarus.
"We noticed three drones operating in the territory of Belarus, moving in the north-northeast direction, and because of these drones, the Baltic air defense aircraft took off. None of these drones crossed the Lithuanian state border, they were moving in the direction of Latvia."
The second situation was on the 11th at around 01:20 local time, a fourth drone was seen flying from the territory of Belarus.
"The crossing of our state border from Belarus to Lithuania was observed. It was not possible to destroy the aerial object since it was an urbanized area, in order to avoid damage from falling debris."
Finland, another neighbor of Russia, adopted temporary airspace and maritime restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, its defense forces said in X, but later withdrew them.
Drone debris killed two people in Russia's Smolensk region, bordering Belarus, according to Russian news agencies quoting the local governor.