Drone briefly crossed Latvian airspace on the night of September 1
On the night of September 1, a likely drone briefly crossed Latvian airspace before continuing toward Estonia, an incident that coincided with a large-scale Ukrainian drone strike on targets in Russia.
Latvia's National Armed Forces (NBS) confirmed that on the night of September 1, a suspected unmanned aerial vehicle crossed Latvian airspace, according to data from surveillance sensors. Shortly after crossing Latvian territory, the drone reportedly crossed the Latvian-Estonian border and continued flying into Estonian airspace.
The NBS said it could not comment on further details of the flight or the drone's subsequent path over other countries' territory. The military noted that the incident occurred as Ukraine was carrying out a large-scale drone attack on targets inside Russia, including the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, located near the Estonian border.
Parallel incidents in Estonia
Estonian Air Force commander Brigadier General Riivo Valge told Estonian public broadcaster that the same night, two drones near the Russian border posed a potential threat to Estonia. Around 2 a.m., as Ukraine's drone attack began, roughly ten drones were spotted in the border area. One of them headed toward Narva around 3 a.m. while still in Russian airspace, prompting a warning to residents and the scrambling of NATO Baltic air-policing fighters from Ämari air base. The drone did not enter Estonian airspace and turned back. About half an hour later, another drone briefly crossed into southeastern Estonia, triggering a second warning. Both incidents ended without consequences, with no drones crashing and no shots fired by NATO jets.
Alerts in Latvia as well
That same night, Latvia's NBS also issued threat warnings. At 2 a.m., residents of Ludza municipality received a mobile alert about a possible airspace threat, which was declared over at 2:25 a.m. At 3:37 a.m., the NBS issued another airspace threat warning for the municipality, activating NATO fighter jets, before the alert ended at 4:17 a.m.
