A French fighter jet shot down a drone that entered NATO ally Latvia’s airspace from Russia on Monday, the latest security incident along Europe’s eastern border while Russia wages war on Ukraine.
NATO command ordered the shoot-down after it was determined that Russia had used electromagnetic warfare in the area, Latvian Defense Minister Raivis Melnis told reporters. The drone was brought down Monday morning near the village of Berzgale, roughly 20 miles from the border. No property damage or injuries were reported.
The type of drone and its origin were unclear.
It was the first drone NATO has shot down over Latvia, but not the first to cause alarm in Eastern and Central Europe.
A NATO fighter jet last month shot down a suspected stray Ukrainian drone over Estonia. The following day, Lithuania’s president and prime minister were rushed to underground bunkers and Vilnius’s residents were urged to take shelter after a drone violated the country’s airspace.
Also last month, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in Galati, Romania, about 20 miles from the Ukrainian border, and exploded, injuring two people.
Officials in Eastern Europe have grown increasingly concerned about the Russia-Ukraine war spilling into NATO territory.
The incidents have sown chaos along NATO’s eastern border and sharpened concerns about alliance security at a moment when the U.S. commitment to collective defense remains uncertain under President Donald Trump.
Multiple Ukrainian drones crashing into Latvian territory last month ahead of national elections caused the government there to fall over security concerns. Prime Minister Evika Silina said the breaches showed that “the political leadership of the defense sector failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country” and sacked Defense Minister Andris Spruds. She then lost her coalition’s support and resigned.
NATO forces have been building up their presence on the alliance’s eastern flank as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all staunch Ukraine allies, accuse Moscow of operations aimed at destabilizing them.
The French jet that shot down the drone Monday is part of a NATO air patrol over the three Baltic states since they joined the alliance in 2004.
The appearance of military drones over Europe has stoked unease that NATO nations are insufficiently equipped for the challenges of modern warfare. A key question is the feasibility of using multimillion-dollar jets and missiles to knock down small, cheap drones.
After Poland accused Russia of sending a swarm of drones into its airspace in September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the creation of a “drone wall.”
The project, a network of sensors and electronic warfare tools meant to intercept small drones, remains a distant prospect. In the meantime, Eastern European nations have bolstered their anti-drone defenses individually and through the European Unionand NATO.
Latvia’s military plans to deploy more interceptor teams — small units of soldiers in rugged-terrain vehicles with killer drones capable of destroying incoming drones within a roughly six-mile radius — along the country’s 250-mile border with Russia and its ally Belarus.
Ukrainian drones, meanwhile, have been striking deep into Russian territory. Last week, hours before Russia’s St. Petersburg Economic Forum was due to open, Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in the city and the nearby Kronstadt naval base, more than 600 miles from the Ukrainian border, as well as a weapons facility in the Tambov region.
Then overnight Saturday, the forum’s last day — and hours after President Vladimir Putin delivered a keynote speech in which he rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s overtures for a ceasefire — Ukrainian drones struck Kronstadt again, as well as a nearby naval arsenal and an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, Zelensky said.
“It is time to end this war,” he wrote on social media. “But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting.”
Ukraine’s drone fleet, however, also has encountered difficulties in recent days. On Friday, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanța, officials in Bucharest said.
Ukrainian naval officials confirmed that they lost control of one of their sea drones, which they said was knocked off course by Russian electronic warfare.
Also Friday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry apologized to Greece for a sea drone discovered near the Greek island of Lefkada in May.
The incident was “the result of circumstances brought about by the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine,” ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on social media.
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