Overview
- - The defense ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued an “urgent” call on Friday for NATO to keep and expand aircraft and air-defense assets in the region to counter drones.
- - Officials confirmed three separate incidents this week: an explosive-laden drone struck the Auvere power station chimney in eastern Estonia, another detonated in Latvia’s Krāslava region, and a Ukrainian drone crashed in Lithuania’s Varėna district after flying over Belarus.
- - Investigators and analysts say Russian electronic warfare that jams or spoofs GPS-like signals likely confused the drones’ navigation, and they note that long flight distances to Russian Baltic ports raise the chance of such errors.
- - None of the drones were intercepted, and commanders said rules and the risk of spillover into Russian territory limit shoot-down options near the border in peacetime.
- - Baltic leaders rejected unverified claims from Russian state media that they allowed overflights, and authorities moved to harden key sites as probes continue and governments debate how to better warn and protect the public.